New Year's Resolution
by TwistyWristy
Summary: As New Year's Eve comes to pass, a powerful event threatens to change the lives and the war between the Animorphs and Yeerks forever.
1. Prologue

An old story I wrote a couple of years ago.  
This was written for and dedicated to my siblings so there's a few inside jokes that may or may not make no sense to you.  
After a long while I finally decided to tweak, rework some things and publish this anyway.  
The first part is completely finished and part two is in the works.

Enjoy!

TwistyWristy


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Animorphs.

* * *

Jake Berenson scowled as he climbed from the back seat of his mother's red Cadillac.  
Straightening to his feet, he jerked his head from side to side and tugged at his dark suit irritably, trying to get comfortable.

"We're here!" his older brother Tom said enthusiastically, sliding out of the driver's seat, pocketing the car keys and rubbing his hands together eagerly.  
"You're all going to love this!"

Tom quickly jogged around to the other side of the car to pop open the passenger door for Jean, their mother.

"Thank you," she smiled, stepping from the car.  
She was dressed in a dazzling ocean blue dress of silk, a gold necklace sparkling around her neck and pearl earrings twinkling from each ear.

"Trees. Sidewalk and asphalt. Impressive." Jake said sarcastically.

"Midget." Tom smiled tolerantly and then turned to Jean and Peter with an apologetic smile. "We've got a few blocks to walk, I hope you don't mind."

"Oh it's fine." Jean said. "Your dad could use the exercise anyway."

"True." Tom nodded, patting Peter's shoulder. "Dad you're a doctor - isn't it against the Hippocratic oath or something to be overweight and then advise other people on health issues?"

Peter rolled his eyes as Tom and Jean laughed.  
Normally, Jake would've joined in but he was not looking forward to the evening.

The good natured teasing trailed off as the sounds of music and people began to reach their ears.

"Oh my word!" Jean exclaimed as they turned the final corner. "This is amazing!"

"Sure is hon," Peter said gazing around the downtown area.

Instead of the usual teeming with bumper to bumper traffic, thick burst of horns and profanity and the intoxicating smell of car exhaust, it had been transformed into a place of beauty.

Brilliant, globes of glowing lights, every which way you turned, cast soft warm rays of color. Every building, every facade and surface glittered and sparkled, blustering with ribbons and shining decorations. All sorts of wooden booths and stands were littered everywhere, surrounded by excited kids patiently and not so patiently waiting their turn to have their faces painted, or to get a big steaming cup of hot chocolate topped with creamy milk, sprinkles and big, puffy, marshmallows.  
Fancy, dazzlingly dressed entertainers worked their charm, deftly juggling pins and wine glasses, shining faces of the young and old alike watching in awe, gymnasts spiraling and twirling, seemingly effortlessly through the air, drawing gasps of astonishment and amazement from the crowd.

The delicious smells of food, namely pizza and fried chicken wafted and floated seductively, caressing people's noses, tickling their appetites, people happily stuffing their faces with dripping slices of Cheese Pizza and Chili Dogs.

Adults and older kids were dressed in formal clothing as had been politely suggested though not required and therefore, everyone had assumed it meant that's what they should be wearing; younger kids were not under the same suggestion and moved around freely in all sorts of attire.

The entire extravaganza was organized by the Sharing, an event which, to the town's citizens, was shaping up to be an amazing, wonderful perhaps even magical way to celebrate the upcoming new Year but to Jake, it was nothing but another hellish long night of the so called holidays stolen from him as he fought to prevent what the Sharing was really up to, behind the masquerade of bringing in the New Year.

The family of four continued walking and as the noise began getting louder, the people more numerous, something directly in the center of downtown became prominent; a large stand had been erected in the middle of the road completely encircled by a large mass of screaming people.

"Is that—" Jean began, squinting at the person singing on stage. "Oh my god, Oh my god is that Paul McCartney?" she finished, shrieking, in a very unJean like way.

"What?" Peter said, turning and Jake snapped his head towards the stage, looking for himself.

"Absolutely," Tom smiled, pulling a pair of sunglasses from his pocket. "I didn't tell you, I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Oh my god, I loved the Beatles when I was teenager!" Jean shrieked, again, moving closer towards the stage.

"What! How the hell did the Sharing get Paul McCartney here?" Jake demanded furiously, clenching his fists. More importantly, he thought to himself, how come no one had found out?

Peter frowned at Jake and jerked his head warningly towards Jean—she wasn't at all thrilled about Jake's affinity for foul language—but she was currently too enamored with Paul to have noticed.

"Mr. Visser, one of our most senior members, has been close friends with Paul for years." Tom said, sliding the shades onto his face. "When he asked if Paul could play here for the Sharing's New Year's Eve Bash, well—" A cold smile crept slowly across Tom's face confirming Jake's fears. "Paul said he couldn't refuse."

"I bet he couldn't," Jake muttered. "A controller can't refuse anything."

"What midget?" Tom said, turning to frown at Jake.

"I said I think I see Marco over there—" Jake said. "Later."

"That doesn't sound at all like what you said," Tom hissed suspiciously.

"Have fun Jake!" Peter yelled over the din, as Jake made his way off, pushed through the crowds. "Tell Martin I said hi!"

Jake responded incoherently, continuing to brush his way through the crowd until he was a good block or so away from Tom and Peter.  
Taking a quick glance around, he pulled a cell phone from his pocket and flipped it open, jabbed at a few numbers and pressed it to his ear.

"Hey, Jake buddy," a voice said from behind him.

Jake leapt a foot in the air, nearly dropping his phone on the ground but managing to snag it by a corner at the last second.

"Damn it Marco!" Jake yelled, turning around to face a short, grinning boy with long black hair.

"What did you sneak up on me like that for! Do you know how serious tonight is? Do you know how stressed and tense I am?" Jake snarled.

"You need to take a chill pill man, lighten up a bit," Marco smirked, slapping him on the back.  
"Like my shades? They are so totally Neo. Here's your pair... same style as mine, except that mine enhance my good looks and yours save people from having to look at too much of your face at once!" he ended with a laugh.

Jake gave him a cold look before sliding on the sunglasses, and snapping the cell phone shut.

"Are any of the others here yet?" Jake asked, dropping the phone into his pocket.

"Yep. Birdboy's overhead, flying cover. He told me where you were, that's how I snuck up on you."—Jake gritted his teeth—"Cassie's with Ax sampling all of the food booths and Rachel..." he paused, sighing. "has to keep an eye on her little sister. Too bad, she would've loved to be walking around with me, enjoying this fine evening."

Jake scowled. "You know perfectly well Rachel hates you and would never so much as think about walking anywhere with you."

"It's my New Year's Resolution," Marco said. "Rachel will fall for me, I know she will."

"Whatever. Does she have her sunglasses yet?" Jake demanded.

"Umm, don't think so," Marco answered. "Rachel's mom didn't come as usual, she's busy preparing paperwork for some big case. So Rachel's been keeping an eye on Sara the whole time they've been here. She tried to dump Sara off on... that other girl... but it didn't work."

"Well, let's go pick up a pair then. Where's the booth?" Jake asked.

"Right around this corner, I'll show you."

They headed off down the block, weaving through a crowd cheering on a pair of jugglers who were expertly bobbling flaming torches back and forth.

"You know, it's sad the Yeerks are behind all of this," Marco mused. "I mean, other than the extremely bothersome fact that this is all organized by a massive group of ugly, slimy slugs who would love nothing more than to slither into our ears and posses are brains and bodies, this would be a pretty cool party."

"No, it wouldn't," Jake disagreed, still annoyed with Marco for surprising him earlier and it didn't help that he had this sudden nagging feeling that something was wrong.

"Still annoyed with me for sneaking up on you earlier?" Marco grinned, reading his mind.  
"By the way Jake, you shouldn't have looked around so suspiciously when you pulled out your cellphone. I mean come on, it made you look suspicious yourself."

"Thanks Mr. CIA" Jake said sarcastically and they strode the rest of the way towards the booth in silence, getting in line to wait for a man to finish buying pairs of Spiderman sunglasses for his son and daughter.

The young, blonde haired boy grinned at Jake happily, clutching onto his Dad's hand.

"Hey," Marco said, peering at all of the choices. "Think Rachel will go for those pink Hello Kitty ones?"

Jake rolled his eyes. "Marco, you know as well as anyone that Rachel will ram them down your throat if you get her those."

"Yeah," The boy at the stand said, as the two kids dragged their father over to get airbrush tattoos, squealing about pirates, skeletons and anchors.  
"My programming won't even allow me to comprehend what Rachel might do to you Marco."

"Okay, yeah, whatever Tin Can Man," Marco snipped. "Just give us the shades."

Erek the android frowned slightly at Marco's rudeness. "You know, just because you don't like the fact that I'm hard-wired to be non-violent doesn't mean you have to be so rude. I mean look at how you act. I don't like it but I'm not rude about it."

"What do you mean how I act?" Marco yelped. "You're a—"

"Marco," Erek interrupted gently. "Don't argue with an Android. I can come up with millions of different responses, any of which will leave you flabbergasted."

Marco scowled and Erek bent down, straightening shortly with a black pair of sunglasses in hand.

"Here you go," he said. "Hmmm..."

He paused in the middle of handing the sunglasses to Marco, touching his ear lightly.

"Mr. Flabbergasted... the shades?" Marco asked, holding out his hand.

Erek ignored him, remaining still for several more seconds, before dropping the sunglasses into Marco's waiting hand. "Looks like you guys made it just on time.  
You'd better hurry and get out of here."

"Why, what's going on?" Jake asked, as Marco put the sunglasses into his pocket muttering under his breath all the while.

Erek jerked a thumb to the right—Jake and Marco casually glanced in the indicated direction to see a group of three serious looking security guards hurrying towards the stand, hands unnervingly close to their holsters.

"Controllers obviously," Marco said, his eyes narrowing. "Looks like the jig's up. You'd better get out of here too Erek. That is, unless you want to get into a confrontation of course. Give 'em the old one-two."

"Nah, we've got it covered." Erek smiled.

Two different security guards, one male, one female, suddenly appeared at Erek's side, each gripping one of his arms tightly. The female flickered for a second, and Lourdes the Android appeared, giving them a quick wink, before putting her hologram back up.  
They waved off the three security guards and escorted Erek off.

Jake nodded approvingly, before starting away from the booth, Marco right beside him.

"Good thing we got Rachel's pair before the Yeerks got to the stand," Jake muttered, pulling out his cell phone again.

"Um, yeah," Marco said laughing nervously.

Jake exchanged a few quick words over the phone before snapping it shut and sliding it into his pocket.

"Rachel's somewhere around the stage, let's go." Jake ordered.

They headed down the block in silence, halted momentarily by a pushy clown who insisted on making them balloon animals.

Jake frowned, as he passed his balloon dog to a small girl, a thought forming in his mind.

Marco squeezed his balloon animal's neck until it burst into shreds.

"Marco," Jake said suddenly.

"What?" Marco said. "I would've given mine to that kid too, but I really hate giraffes. Something about the combination of stick legs and the orangish-yellow color it really bugs me."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Jake said, glowering as the clown, having turned at the sound of the popping noise, hurried back over to him and thrust a bright pink balloon bunny into his hand, somehow failing to noticed that Marco was also balloonless.

"Why did you get my sunglasses but not Rachel's? If you saw she was watching Sara, you should've gotten them for her."

"Yeah... about that." Marco laughed nervously. "I started to get them for her but you know, there was someone around who might've gotten suspicious and start asking all these questions and stuff, so for security reasons I—"

"Marco," Jake said darkly. "Would this certain someone happen to be Jordan?"

"Yeah," Marco said reluctantly. "But you know how annoying she is when she gets near me!"

"You idiot!" Jake snapped as they came upon the mass of people surrounding the stand.

A burly man turned around menacingly at these words, but his friend managed to assure him that no one was calling him an idiot and led him away.

"Come on Jake, Jordan's been trying to follow me around all night!" Marco complained.

"You didn't bring Rachel the sunglasses just because you didn't feel like dealing with her lovesick sister?" Jake seethed. "We all have to deal with stuff we don't want to!  
You are such a jerk, I don't even know why she likes you, I really don't!"

"Eh, you're being dramatic Jake buddy. We got the sunglasses didn't we?  
Hey, isn't that the sexy girl who was on American Idol?" Marco asked trying to change the subject, pointing towards the stage.

Jake ignored him and continued fuming and raging.

"Man that's just messed up," Marco sighed, completely ignoring Jake in return and watching the 'hot' girl dancing around and singing. "I voted for her like 50 times every week but she got voted off. Who knew she was a controller?"

"It's people like you," an angry girl's voice said, a very tall, very beautiful and very angry girl glaring at them. "That mess up the entire season by voting for the people who look good instead of who can sing."

"Heh," Marco laughed nervously. "Hey babe, how's it going?"

"Cousin Jake!" A high voice squealed, and a small blonde girl in pigtails threw her arms around Jake's midriff.

"Hey cuz," Jake said, managing to muster up a smile, patting her on the back. "Why don't you get us all some hot cocoa?" he added, handing her a few dollar bills.

"Um... Okay," Sara agreed and skipped off towards the booth.

Jake turned towards Rachel and immediately, felt himself flush.  
She was wearing a very tight, strapless red dress that clung to her body.

"Rachel," Jake said awkwardly, staring at the ground. "Um—that's some outfit."

"Understatement of the year Jake buddy, she is hot!" Marco wolf-whistled and Rachel felt her face beginning to flush.

"Stuff it weenie," Rachel hissed aggressively, shoving Marco a few feet.  
"I never got a chance to get to the mall to replace my morphing outfit after last night's battle! Downtown's been locked down all day for this stupid party in case you morons haven't noticed, so I had to wear one of my old dresses from a few years ago."

"Oh my god, it's like the Grinch except it's your dress that is two sizes too small.  
Might I suggest we impose a team dress code Jake?" Marco smirked.

Laughing, he ducked behind Jake, as Rachel started towards him.

"Marco," Jake growled. "Knock it off and give Rachel the sunglasses."

"Hehe, you're just jealous 'cause she's your cousin and she's off limits. Well technically, she's not but- ahh! Jake! Jake come on man, let go!"

Jake had wrapped his arm around Marco's head and forced him into a headlock.

"I am in a bad mood Marco. I was up all night last night and have hardly slept at all the past few days, the Yeerks are plotting something huge and then you go and scare me half to death earlier with your antics. You are going to stop being an annoying prick, you are going to stop giving Rachel grief over her dress and you are going to give her the sunglasses like you should have earlier. Do you understand me?"

"Alright, alright," Marco huffed and Jake loosened his grip. "Can't make a simple joke around you high-strung people, sheesh."

Rachel caught the glasses Marco flipped to her and jammed them on.

"Idiot," she muttered, shoving Marco again. "So is everyone setup?"

"Yeah," Jake said, dropping his voice to a whisper. "Cassie and-" he broke off suddenly as Sara came bounding back into view.

"Um—where's the hot chocolate you were supposed to buy?" Jake asked her.

"Mr. Berenson is bringing it!" Sara piped, turning to watch one of the bands perform.

"Mr. Ber—" Jake muttered slowly, confused and then "Oh crap."

Peter and Tom came into view, both carrying trays of hot chocolate.

"Jake!" Peter said angrily. "Care to explain why you sent Sara off by herself to buy hot chocolate?"

"Marco was telling dirty jokes," Rachel offered quickly, a small smile forming on her lips.

Marco glared at her and she batted her eyes, continuing. "They were really inappropriate for Sara to be hearing so Jake sent Sara off for a moment until we could get him to shut up."

"Haha," Marco laughed, slapping Peter on the shoulder, trying to roll with it. "You know how it is when you just have to tell someone something funny, right? Right?"

Peter shook his head with disappointment at Marco and thrust his cup of cocoa into his hand as Jake and Rachel exchanged small, satisfied nods.

"Ooh!" Sara squealed running over to Marco "Where did you get those sunglasses I want some"

"Sorry Sara," Tom said, patting her on the head. "It turns out the guy selling them was some kind of criminal. Security shut down his booth and hauled him away."

"But I want to look like him, he looks cool!" Sara pouted; Marco smirked.

"He does not look cool!" Rachel sneered.

"Yes he does," Sara said and Marco nodded in agreement. "Can I wear them, just for a minute please, please, please!" Sara begged Marco clutching his legs, and looking up into his face, her eyes huge.

"Uh—" Marco fidgeted uncomfortably, the smirk slowly evaporating.

"Sara…" Peter started wearily, and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Please, please just for a minute" she cried. "I promise I'll give them right back, I only wanted them for a minute because I'll be able to bend spoons, and fight off hundreds of Moe's and Joe's—those are two bullies at my school I hate them—then I can fly and-"

"Oh god!" Rachel growled, closing her eyes in horror as she realized what Sara was blabbing about and Jake frowned deeply.

"What were you doing watching that movie?" she yelled.

"Mommy said I could!" Sara piped. "I saw all three, did you Uncle Pete Pete and Tom?"

"Um... yes I did," Peter said, cursing his sister in law, Naomi, and her inattentiveness.

Tom ignored her, checking the time on his cellphone, looking both nervous and mad.

"Well," Marco said, breaking the silence. "Anyone who thinks I'm cool can borrow my shades for a while."

"Thank you, thank you!" Sara squeaked, as Marco gently pushed the sunglasses over her eyes.

"What do you dorks have on sunglasses for anyway?" Tom asked angrily. "It's dark outside there's hardly even a moon."

"Why are you wearing them?" Jake countered coolly, turning to face him.

Tom laughed humorlessly. "I'm in one of the shows the Sharing's putting on midget. Speaking of which, it starts in about a half an hour so dad, we'd better hurry if you're going to meet a few of the senior sharing members beforehand. Anyone else want to come along?"

"No thanks, I'll just stay here," Jake said with clenched teeth.

Rachel shook her head, declining, and Marco and Sara were too wrapped up having a fake kung-fu fight to answer.

Looking slightly disappointed, Tom headed off with Peter.

"Filthy Yeerks," Jake hissed, draining his now lukewarm hot chocolate.

"Chill, I'm sure your Dad will be fine," Rachel whispered.

"Yeah, I guess," Jake sighed, glancing at his watch. "Damn, we still have to wait around for another two hours and a half."

"Oh shut up, you just got here. I've been here for at least three hours already, Sara insisted on coming early and Naomi made me take her." Rachel growled crossing her arms.

"Have an elephant!" a clown said suddenly from behind Jake, making him jerk slightly in surprise.

The clown, the exact same guy who had been annoying him earlier in fact, eagerly jabbed a blue twisted balloon into Jake's face.

"No thank you," he said coldly, turning away.

The clown pranced comically over to Jake's other side so that he was facing him again.

"Have an elephant!" he roared happily, thrusting the elephant forwards.

Rachel smirked, as Jake glared at the clown coldly for a good fifteen seconds before finally snatching the elephant.  
The clown clapped as if nothing in the world could have delighted him more than Jake taking the balloon animal and skipped off happily as Sara and Marco danced their way back over towards them, singing merrily.

"Everybody was kung-fu fighting," Sara squeaked.  
"Those cats were fast as lightning!" Marco sang and Rachel cringed at his high pitched notes.

"Here," Jake told Sara grumpily, handing her the elephant.

Sara let out a battle yell, a squeaky one, and with a single high kick blew the balloon to shreds, Rachel closing her eyes at the popping sound and rubbed her temples.

"That was so cool!" Sara cheered, giving Marco back his sunglasses and bouncing up and down excitedly. "Rachel, he has to come over lots and lots so we can play all the time cause he's so much fun and-"

"No way is he coming over," Rachel interjected over Sara's babbling, her eyes snapping open.

"But-but" Sara whined, her excitement suddenly crushed by Rachel. "Why not? He wants to come over don't you?"

"Yeah, Rachel?" Marco asked with a smirk, sliding back on his shades. "Why can't he come over?"

"Because I have a restraining order on him," Rachel snapped matter-of-factly.

"Don't know if that restraining order's is strong enough to hold me back babe, you're attraction is too strong." Marco joked tickling her under the chin.

Jake rolled his eyes and Rachel slapped his hand away, though a tiny smile flitted across her face before returning to its normal, aggressive looking one. "Zip it Marco. Let's move somewhere else, I can't stand hearing screaming fans for much longer."

"Told you I'd get her to fall for me," Marco whispered to Jake, as they started down the block.

"A small smile, big deal." Jake sneered. "This from the guy who spends every Friday night begging me to come over and play video games because he doesn't have a date."

"I'm hurt that you accuse me of begging!" Marco said with an appropriately matched hurt tone. "Why, I've only done it for you! Canceling all of my dates to come play video games with you so you wouldn't be a miserable sod on Friday."

Marco scrunched up his face and in a horrible imitation of Jake's voice said, "I'm Jake and I'm such a loser because it's Friday and I have no date!"

"Freeze!" A high voice commanded, and Jake hesitated, his empty cup of hot chocolate clutched in his hand, ready to clobber Marco across the face.  
A few other people nearby also froze and looked around in concern as Sara marched towards a teenage boy.

"Were you paying attention?" She demanded. "Or were you looking at my sister in the red dress?"

A couple of people chuckled, and Marco collapsed into Jake, laughing.

"I uh," the boy stuttered nervously, as Rachel growled and started towards him.

"Look again," Sara advised, and the boy turned to see a very angry Rachel storming towards him.

Marco started laughing even harder now, and Sara lead the bewildered boy down the block.  
"Everyone that you see around you is an enemy," Sara piped, in a high carrying voice.

"Are you calling me an enemy?" Rachel demanded, cursing the fact that her dress hindered her speed.

Jake ran over to Sara, scooped her off the ground, cutting her off in the middle of her lesson /speech and apologized to the embarrassed boy.

"You!" Rachel yelled, snatching Sara away from Jake and shaking her shoulders fiercely. "No more watching anything unless I tell you you can, understand me?"

"I think I have an even better idea," Sara said, glaring back at Rachel.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Marco yelped in alarm as Jake laughed and Rachel's face flushed even further with anger.

"Why don't we get your face painted! You want to get your face painted, right?" Marco asked.

"Yay! Can I have tiger stripes?" Sara squeaked, all thoughts of her 'better idea' forgotten.

Marco hurried her away and Rachel huffed, kicking at the road.  
Jake gave it his own kick, sending a pebble skittering into the gutter.

"Uh, you okay?" Jake asked, leading her over to a bench.

Rachel was silent for a few minutes and then spoke up suddenly.  
"I hate wearing this it's so embarrassing," she snapped at Jake, as if it was his fault her original morphing suit was shredded beyond repair.  
"I look like a... a..."

"Showgirl?" a dark-brown haired girl offered.  
Rachel's sister, Jordan, came into view, carrying a large vanilla ice cream cone sprinkled with chopped nuts.

"Maybe one of those cage dancers," She laughed, taking a lick and Jake smirked a little.

With one swift kick, Rachel lashed Jordan off her feet, sending her sprawling to the ground, the ice cream splattering besides her.

"Rachel!" Jordan's voice rang with annoyance as she pushed herself back to her feet, brushing off her clothes. "You owe me five bucks!"

"Dream on," Rachel sneered, self-satisfied.

"Roar!" Sara yelled, suddenly popping into sight, her face smeared with orange and black stripes.  
"Did I scare you, huh, huh?" she squeaked excitedly.

"No." Rachel said sullenly, and Sara's face fell with disappointment.  
"It didn't work Marco!" Sara complained, as Marco strolled over and Rachel screamed, hiding her face behind her hands.

"Ha," Marco said dryly. "Ha, ha. Very funny Xena. By the way, did I mention ha?"

"Hi, Marrrr-co!" Jordan purred in her silkiest voice, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"Jordan." Marco acknowledged her with an exasperated sigh and rolling of his eyes.

"Jake? Is that you?" a strong male voice asked from the crowd.

They all turned around and spotted a small family of three walking towards them.

"Shit," Jake muttered under his breath.

Mr. Chapman, their high school principal, a balding middle-aged man jogged up besides them, dressed sharply in a custom-cut Italian suit.  
His wife, a tall, snooty blonde and dressed just as well, followed him, more or less dragging along their small, brown haired, glum-faced teenage girl.

"Hello Mr. Chapman sir," Marco said, cautiously shaking his hand.

"Marco! And Rachel!" Mr. Chapman said with a smile, shaking each of their hands in turn.

He dropped down on his knees next to Sara. "And who's this little angel?"

"I'm Sara," Sara piped, enthusiastically pumping his hand up and down.

"That's quite a handshake you've got there," he chuckled, standing to his feet and straightening his tie. "I hope you're all—"

"I'm Jordan don't mind me," Jordan sighed.

"Oh. So sorry I missed you," Mr. Chapman said sincerely, taking her hand. "This is my wife Crystal, and of course Rachel, you already know my daughter Melissa."

"Hi Melissa!" Sara said, grabbing her hand and shaking it as well "Are you going to come over again because you haven't been over forever and ever and you used to come over every day after school with Rachel and you'd sleep over sometimes and have dinner with us so how come you don't come over anymore, huh?"

Rachel and Melissa looked at each other awkwardly, before dropping their gaze.

"So, um... you're not about to give us a detention are you?" Marco joked uneasily trying to break the ugly silence.

"No, no" Mr. Chapman said, laughing amicably. "I merely came to see if you were all enjoying yourselves?"

"Yes!" Sara screamed loudly, drowning out the others mumbled responses.

"Rachel took me to listen to Paul McCartney, and then we listened to Shriek Freaks and then I got a Soft Pretzel and ice cream and we saw the lights and then my new friend Marco took me to get my face painted!"

Rachel's face twitched slightly at the mentioning of Marco as Sara's 'new friend' but she otherwise remained completely still.

"I'm glad you're having such a wonderful time," Mr. Chapman said, smiling at her warmly. "You don't know how happy it makes me to see the whole town out celebrating New Years Eve together. The Sharing is hoping to make this a little tradition."

"I bet you are," Jake said, plastering a big fake smile onto his face.

"You know, you kids should think about joining. It's a great organization, we do lots of good work, have lots of fun." Mr. Chapman said enthusiastically.

"I don't think-" Jake began, but Sara interrupted him, squeaking excitedly.

"Ooh! I want to join! Can I join, please, please? Even though I'm not big, 'cause sometimes, people say 'You must be 18 years or older to call' but I don't want to wait till I'm 18, so could I join now pretty please?"

"Well the Sharing accepts anyone, no matter what age they are," Ms. Chapman said, smiling coldly.

"Yes, we accept all ages," Mr. Chapman said, brightly. "We don't have the sign-up forms setup tonight," he continued, looking as if he sincerely regretted this fact. "But get one of your sisters to stop by our office some time this week. Here's the Sharing's business card."

He pulled a card from his pocket, reaching to hand it to Sara, but Rachel threw her arm out to take it first.

"I'll hold it for her so she doesn't lose it," Rachel said smoothly in response to Mr. Chapman's puzzled, questioning look.

"Yes, yes, of course" Mr. Chapman said pleasantly. "Well you kids have a wonderful New Years Eve! Come along Melissa, I want you to meet some of the more senior Sharing Members."

Looking utterly miserable, Melissa slummed down the road after her mother and father.

"Jeez," Marco said, breathing deeply. "I hate talking to Mr. Chapman, he makes me feel all tense."

"I know it's so creepy," Jordan agreed. "Vice principals shouldn't be allowed to talk to anyone outside of school." She frowned, thoughtfully. "They shouldn't be allowed to talk to anyone at all."

"He's not even your principal!" Marco said. "You just agree with everything I say!"

"I got sent to see him once... I can be a really bad girl sometimes." Jordan said slyly.

_"What have I done to deserve this?" Marco thought, pained._

"Rachel, Rachel, can we go back to the stage and listen to some music?" Sara piped.

"Not now, Rachel has to buy me another ice cream cone," Jordan told her.  
"Do you want to split it with me Marco, it's kind of big for one person and—"

"I don't like ice cream that much," Marco lied. "It's too rich for me."

Even Jordan rolled her eyes at that one, and went to force five dollars out of Rachel.

"What do you want ice cream for any way," Rachel snapped, trying and failing to keep Jordan away from her purse.  
She shot Jordan a disgruntled look as she headed off to the lineless ice cream stand. "It's freezing out here!"

"Here, Xena babe," Marco said, taking off his jacket, and wrapping it around Rachel's shoulders. "That'll keep you warm."

"Why does Marco call you Xena babe?" Sara asked Rachel.

"Because he's an idiot?" Rachel suggested. "I don't know."

"Why do you call her Xena babe?" Sara asked Marco.

"Because, she's like Xena the Warrior Princess! Duh!" Marco added playfully.

"You mean like Cinderella and Snow White?" Sara asked in confusion.

"Oh my god, you've never seen Xena?"Marco asked shocked.  
" Lucy Lawless?" he added hopefully when Sara shook her head no.  
"You poor depraved child! Xena kicks serious butt just like—"

"Marco!" Jake snapped, coming out of his stupor.

"Err," Marco said hurriedly. "Well... anyway I call Rachel that because it's kind of just a joke."

"Of course it is," Jordan said, coming back with her ice cream. "Rachel's nothing but a joke."

"Wasn't losing one ice cream enough for you?" Rachel growled at Jordan throwing Marco's jacket back to him, who shrugged, buttoning it back up.

"Ooh, Chocolate! Ooh, Jordan, give me a bite!" Sara yelled, jumping up and down.

"No way, you'll dribble it all out of your mouth," Jordan said, pulling her ice cream out of Sara's reach.

"I don't dribble it out of my mouth!" Sara whined. "Come on Jordan, give me some."

"Yes you do dribble out of your mouth," Rachel grumbled, "Shut up your giving me a headache."

Sara crossed her arms and pouted, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

"Don't you even start!" Rachel snapped. "You had an ice cream cone earlier. God. What time is it?" she muttered in an undertone to Jake.

Jake frowned, glancing at his watch. "Still an hour to go," he muttered back.

"Will you buy me an ice cream cone Marco?" Sara asked hopefully.

"Sorry, I'm pretty much broke. Since we're friends now, I should warn you that I often am and that'll you'll need to be the one with the money in this deal."

"Jake! Hey Jake!" A girl yelled, waving her arms.

Jake sighed, as a short, slightly chubby black girl, with short, practically scalp clinging hair, ran over to them.

"I have arrived," A handsome boy announced, walking up behind her.

"Cassie, what are you doing here?" Jake hissed.  
Jordan was looking over at them curiously, so he led her a few feet away from the group.  
"You were supposed to call!"

"Um, well I kind of left the cell phone at home by mistake." Cassie said. "I'm not used to carrying one around all the time like you guys are. Ax said we had an hour left till we had to meet and I didn't know how long it'd take to find you."

"How could you forget the cell—Fine, whatever," Jake sighed. "As long as we're all ready when it's time."

"Prince Jake?" Ax asked as Cassie and Jake came back over to the group. "Who are they?"

Jake sighed. "For the I don't know how manyeth time, don't call me Prince."

A flicker of a smile flashed across Ax's face. "Yes Prince Jake."  
"Xena? Prince Jake?" Sara giggled. "You guys are weird! I love hanging out with you!"

"Don't get used to it." Rachel snapped. "These clowns you see before you are my sisters Ax. The squeaky one's Sara and the annoying one's Jordan. Sara, Jordan this is Phillip."

"You should be talking about annoying Rachel," Jordan said with a glare.

"And I'm not squeaky!" Sara protested, trying to deepen her voice.

"Of course you're not," Cassie said kindly, tweaking her nose.

"Ew... don't—don't tweak people's noses Cassie," Marco said, Sara squirming in displeasure and jerking away from Cassie. "It makes you seem like an old lady."

Cassie frowned. "Why does tweaking someone's nose make me seem like an old lady?"

"It's a known fact that no one tweaks people's noses except for old ladies" Marco said.

"That is not at all true Marco," Ax said. "Nikki often tweaks her boyfriends noses when she wishes to express affection for them."

"Oh I love Nikki!" Sara squeaked excitedly. "Did you see last week's Christmas special?"

"Oh yes!" Ax said, just as excitedly. "That episode was so young. So restless! So wonderful!"

"What?" Marco laughed. "So young, so restless? That doesn't make any sense."

"You are wrong again Marco." Ax tsked, shaking his head. "The name of the show is called The Young and the Restless. Therefore the shows are both young and restless."

"Whatever," Rachel grumbled. "The fact of the matter is Sara shouldn't be watching it."

"Why not?" Sara whined. "I can handle it, I wanna watch it!"

"Oh but she HAS to watch the Young and the Restless!" Ax said, leaping to Sara's defense.

"It's not appropriate for you, Sara" Rachel sighed.

"Or for Ax," Marco muttered under his breath.  
He moved away from Jordan who had been sidling closer and closer to him.

"I can handle it!" Sara complained. "I've seen people with guns before and machine guns and sniper rifles and–"

"Oh my goodness!" Cassie gasped, as Sara went on and on. "You really shouldn't be watching that stuff Sara!"

"And I've heard people say bad words too," Sara went on ignoring Cassie. "And next week I've got to see if Nikki and Victor stay together or break apart for good, I've got to Rachel, I've got to! I've got to!"

"Yes Rachel, she's got to!" Ax pleaded.

The two put their heads together, their eyes, opened wide, staring up into Rachel's face, lips pouting and quivering.

"You know what? I don't care," Rachel growled, and Ax and Sara cheered, giving each other hi-fives. "I've got stuff to do. Jordan, you watch Sara, and get Uncle Peter to give you a ride home."

"Ex-excuse me?" Jordan sputtered incredulously. "Where do you think you're going to be?"

"We are going to a New Year's Party," Rachel said. "So do what I said and keep an eye on Sara."

"Wait Rachel! Don't you want to see the globe drop?" Sara piped.

"No." Rachel said shortly, sliding on her sunglasses.

"You-you can't just dump Sara off on me!" Jordan said angrily.

"Hey!" Sara interjected, but Jordan ignored her. "What if I was going to a New Year's Party too?"

"Ha!" Rachel laughed. "Who'd invite you to a New Year's party?"

"Plenty of people!"

"Name one!"

"Well... fine no one invited me to one," Jordan said, flushing. "But you never think of anyone else Rachel, all you think about is yourself!"

"That's true girl," Cassie said, nodding seriously. Rachel glared at her.

"Look Jordan, just keep an eye on Sara, and I'll get you a date with Marco."

"Hey!" Marco yelled, immediately stopping smoothing out his hair and looking alarmed

"I don't need you to get me a date," Jordan snapped. "I want Marco to love me for who I am not go out with me because you ask him!"

There was a pained silence as Rachel and Jordan glared at each other.  
Jake closed his eyes and started counting by sevens to remain calm.  
Cassie kicked Marco in the shin.

"Ow!" Marco yelped, glaring at her. "What was that for?"

Cassie jerked her head meaningfully towards Jordan.

Marco blinked and then sighed, muttering ever so quietly but muttering nonetheless about the sacrifices and harshness he had to endure to save the world.

"Jordan," he said looking strained. "You're kind of right... I-I guess I never really gave you a chance."

Jordan stopped scowling at Rachel and turned to look at him, a hopeful look on her face.  
Marco continued to stand there fidgeting, and Cassie kicked him again.

"Ow! Stop kicking me, you think it's easy pretending to ask her out?"

Jake threw his hands up in the air and Jordan turned away, hurt.

"Oops." Marco said. "Did I say that last bit out loud?"

"Idiot," Rachel said, shaking her head in disgust. "Fine Jordan, how much is it going to cost."

"Just go Rachel," Jordan said, closing her eyes.

"What?" Rachel snapped.

"Just go!" Jordan yelled. "Go to your stupid New Year's Party with your stupid friends!"

"Hey, you better watch who you're calling stupid!" Rachel snapped, dropping her money back into her purse and starting towards Jordan but Jake grabbed her firmly and steered her away.

The Animorphs fell back, Cassie staring guiltily at Jordan's glistening eyes.  
"Well, if you look at it in an optimistic way, that went rather well," Marco said brightly as everyone, minus Jordan and Sara, started down the block.

Jake gave him a look that told him to shut up.  
"Shut up Marco." Rachel growled, just in case he misunderstood Jake's look.

"Maybe you should go talk to Jordan, Rachel?" Cassie said worriedly. "She's really upset."

"Now's really not the time," Jake said and they continued moving further and further away from the celebration.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Animorphs.

* * *

"I still don't see how this whole Yeerk thing is going to work anyway," Marco muttered, jamming his hands in his pockets.

"I have told you a thousand times Marco," Ax said exasperatedly.

"The Yeerks are using much more advanced techniques than your primitive attempts to manipulate the human mind. As soon as the count down begins and the globe is first displayed, this globe will begin flashing in an intricate pattern, known as the 'Initiating Phase". It is calculated in such a way, that it will gradually induce a state of semi-consciousness."

"Do you mean like a hypnotic trance?" Cassie asked.

No longer near the festivities, the streets were quickly becoming much darker.

"Precisely, Cassie," Ax nodded. "This initiating stage will last for about 20 of your seconds."

"Excuse me?" Marco said raising his hand. "I'd just like to point out that they're everyone's seconds."

"The next stage is the shock stage." Ax continued, ignoring Marco. "The globe will pulse in complex chaotic patterns at very rapid speeds. During this stage, all who are affected will have many of their neuron's excited. This is when the human minds will be susceptible to outside stimuli. The globe will then reach the injection phase, where the lights of the globe are displayed in such a way that it is associated with 'The Sharing'.  
The yeerks will also have a soft voice whispering the Sharing and maybe simulate some smells that can be associated with the Sharing."

"Like what, the smell of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons," Rachel sneered. "You're telling me the yeerks are going to hypnotize everyone like one of those frauds who come on late night TV?"

"No Rachel," Ax said calmly. "First of all it is not your fundamentally flawed idea of hypnotism which is not as fraudulent as you seem to perceive. Your human method of hypnotism relies on subconscious injection, conveyance and self-submission.  
With the yeerks, because the neurons were previously excited during the shock stage, there will be many random neurons being associated with 'Join The Sharing' rather than just one. This allows many things to be associated with the Sharing, from something as enjoyable as watching TV to the simpler, brushing of your teeth."

"So basically," Marco said. "The yeerks are going to hypnotize everyone using better methods than humans and tell them to join the Sharing, right?"

"Much better methods," Ax emphasized. "But yes, Marco, that is basically what the Yeerks are doing."

"You now, you could've said that in the first place and saved us a lot of time," Marco said. "And there was no need to add that part about 'much better methods' that was just rude."

"It won't work," Cassie said confidently. "You can't force people to do something!"

"You are wrong Cassie. Ninety percent or more of the people will be affected. Of those ninety percent, over sixty-six point four percent of them will join the Sharing." Ax stated calmly.

"That's about two thirds of the town!" Jake exploded. "Two controllers out of every three people!"

"Yes, I've mentioned the fact previously," Ax nodded.

"But," Cassie spluttered, as it sunk in just how many people would become controllers.  
"Not... not everyone will want to stay at the Sharing, you don't become a full member until you've spent a few weeks there."

"You are wrong again," Ax said kindly. "Once someone signs up for the Sharing, the nagging thought about 'Joining the Sharing will seemingly disappear as they will have already joined. However, those who were to quit would feel the nagging feeling come back again and though not quite as strong, they will notice a significant difference in how they felt when and when not a member of the Sharing. It will be the equivalence of feeling that the Sharing made an improvement in their lives."

"Two thirds of the town." Marco said quietly. "If the yeerks do that, it's game over for the Animorphs."

"Well we're not going to let them get away with this," Jake said confidently, pulling out his cellphone; he tapped a few buttons, listened intently for a few seconds, nodded and dropped it back into his jacket pocket.

"Alright guys," Jake frowned, taking one last casual glance around to make sure they weren't being watched.

«It's clear» Tobias said, flying overhead. «You know, just in case you were wondering»

Jake smiled slightly, nodded and reached into his back pocket, extruding four small zip-loc bags each containing a single hair.

"Rachel, you're Sandra Culler," Jake muttered passing her a bag. "Marco, Jim Locklear, Cassie, Jacqueline Brew and I, am Benjamin Stills."

"I really hate this," Cassie sighed, looking distastefully at her bag.

«I know you do but it's the best way Ax and I could think of to get inside» Tobias said, his red-tailed hawk swooping from the sky. «The security on this place is unbelievable. Security cameras everywhere, every single room has four or five guards armed with Dracon beams and the elevators, stairs and windows are all guarded around the clock.»

«None of the windows open» continued Ax. «Every crack has been meticulously checked and sealed and the furnace is constantly kept on to prevent us from sneaking in through the air ducts.»

"Besides," Marco added. "Going in this way though is going to be so awesome, James Bond would be so jealous! Anyway, I just hope this isn't cat hair!" he joked, reaching into the bag.

Closing their eyes, the Animorphs touched the hair, concentrating on acquiring the DNA.

"Hey guys," Erek said, appearing out of thin air, startling Cassie slightly.

"Sorry, didn't mean to alarm you, but here's all of your outfits." Erek dumped a handful of dress outfits into their hands.

"Ugh..." Rachel muttered, flicking through the pile. "Please tell me Jacqueline wears this."

«Nope, that's the style stuff Sandra's wears.» Tobias told her, slightly apologetic.

"How did you get all of this stuff anyway Tobias?" Cassie asked with a slight frown. "I mean, no offense, but you and Ax don't exactly carry wallets."

"Hmmm. this is designer label stuff too, must've cost a lot," Rachel mused.

«Well,» Tobias said. «You know, we kind of just took it.»

"You stole it?" Cassie screeched. "Tobias! Ax!"

«No we didn't steal anything Cassie,» Ax snapped. «We are not little gangsters!  
Tobias simply meant that we took it from the people's houses after we immobilized them.»

"You went into these Yeerks' houses?" Jake said sharply, getting involved in the argument.

«Yeah,» Tobias said, sounding annoyed. «We had to make sure they wouldn't show up here at the same time as us didn't we?»

"You-you killed them?" Cassie asked in a hushed voice.

«No!» Ax said angrily. «We did not steal anything and we did not kill anyone. Erek posed as one of your mail carriers and one by one delivered a brown cube to each of the Yeerks on our list. Once the package was delivered, Tobias and I, who were small insects inside this cube, exited said cube and subdued each controller. We took a sample of their hair, the clothes that we would need and left them tied and duct taped tightly in their closets. We can decide what to do with them after we are complete with this mission.»

"You left them tied up in a closet?" Cassie screeched, and Tobias glared at her.

"Sorry," Cassie said, embarrassed. "Force of habit."

"I still don't like what you did." Jake muttered, shaking his head disapprovingly.  
"It was risky and you should've talked it over with me but whatever. Erek if you could give us a bit of privacy?"

The air shimmered and a hologram appeared, making everyone seem invisible from one another.

"Hey Erek, I hope you're not a peeping robo-Tom." Marco said, as they all began stripping their clothing. "Or maybe it would be called peeping andro-Tom since you're an Android. Digital peeping-Tom? Nah, Cyber Peeping Tom sounds better."

"Shut up Marco!" Rachel snapped.

"Don't worry Marco." Erek said dryly. "I assure you, I have no intentions at peeping at you."

"Ha," Rachel laughed. "Nice one Erek."

One by one, the Animorphs stepped out of the hologram.  
As always, Cassie was the fastest to morph, a 21-year old, tall, attractive blonde.  
Rachel was next, morphed into Sandra Culler a hot, Hispanic woman with 'a flaky purple blazer' as Rachel put it.  
Afterwards, Marco, who had morphed Jim Locklear, a tall black guy with curly black hair, was wearing a charcoal blazer and black pants.  
Jake was a white, thin man of average height with neatly trimmed brown hair and small, dark brown eyes. He was wearing a white collar-shirt and black dress pants.  
Tobias, morphing Paul Fisherman was a gangly black man with an afro, wearing a dark green suit and lastly Ax, having to morph back to Andalite and then his human morph, was a stern looking white male with black hair and steely gray eyes..  
Every one of them was in excellent shape, something Tobias and Ax had made sure of.

"Awesome!" Marco said in a rich bass voice. "Okay, am alone when I think Mission Impossible? I mean we've been studying these people for like two weeks on the report papers T-Bo, Ax and Erek put together. I know more about Jim Locklear than his own mother!"

"Weapons courtesy of Toby." Tobias said, dropping a Dracon beam into each of their hands.  
"She said she wants them back in one piece, so try not to lose them."

"I've always wanted one of these," Rachel sighed, running her fingers along the weapons side.

"I don't know why, they are no where near as powerful as Andalite Shredders." Ax said disdainfully. "Anyway... here are everyone's pills." he added quietly, opening his hand to reveal a fistful of bright yellow pills in his palm. "Everyone gets four of them."

"What?" Jake yelped in alarm. "What have you been watching now Ax?"

"Nothing, nothing at all Prince Jake!" Ax said quickly. "It is merely something the controllers eat that we must at well. Must. Must. Ust. Ust is such an amusing mouth sound isn't it? Sometimes, I could just sit in my scoop all day saying 'ust' just for the fun of it!"

"Ax," Cassie said quietly. "Is there something bothering you?"

"No," Ax said. "I am perfectly fine. I assure you Cassie, that if I have a weight to get off of my chest you will be the first to know."

Cassie continued to look at Ax shrewdly, and Tobias sighed.

"Forget it Ax we mind as well tell them. Well guys these pills... well to make a long story short, they're full of plutonium."

Everyone leapt backwards instantly, staring at Ax's hand in horror.

"Plutonium? What the hell is wrong with you!" Jake screeched. "You trying to get us all killed?"

"Prince Jake," Ax said astonished. "I would never... I...I"

"Hey!" Tobias snapped angrily his borrowed deep voice booming and Jake fell silent.

"That is way over line Jake! The only reason we have to take these pills is because that's what the controllers are doing to prevent us from impersonating them! They figure we might morph one of them and try to sneak in, so the Yeerks have been eating trace amount of plutonium. Small amounts of genes are being mutated from the plutonium so that it'll be different then when we acquired them. If we walk in there with a DNA pattern that's over nine hours old, it'll set off every alarm in that building!"

"Okay. Okay, no problem," Rachel said, accepting a glass of water from Erek and taking four of the pills from Ax.

"Rachel don't!" Cassie said in shock as Rachel threw the pills in her mouth and drained the glass of water. "Oh my god, I can't believe you did that! I am not putting radioactive pills in my mouth!"

"Look Ax, Tobias," Jake sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I've been jumping all over you guys tonight and I'm sorry. It's just that... I can't believe I'm about to ingest plutonium."

"The pills only contain trace amounts of plutonium, sufficient to mutate a small amount of your genes." Ax said snippily, his early shock replaced by anger and indignation. "I have triple and quadruple checked my calculations of the amount needed to bring about the desired DNA patterns in a shorter amount of time. It is perfectly safe."

"This from the guy who doesn't pay attention in school because he's too busy flirting with some Andalite hotties." Marco muttered under his breath grabbing four of the pills from Ax's hand.

"You know, this is why we didn't want to tell you guys what they were," Tobias said, glaring at Marco. "We've been working our tails off for two months, planning and watching and gathering information on this operation for nearly two months while you guys have been at school, doing homework, chores, holiday shopping, spending family time together—"

"Yeah, yeah." Marco muttered cutting off an affronted Tobias. "Kids? Have you had your plutonium today?"  
Marco sighed, closed his eyes and threw the pills down his throat, tried to swallow them dry, choked and took the glass of water Erek offered.  
Finally he reopened his eye. "Not bad, taste like chicken."

"Come on, Cassie," Jake said encouragingly, Cassie staring at the pills in Ax's hand.

Sighing, she slowly took the remaining pills from Ax and put one in her mouth.

"It really does taste like chicken!" Cassie said in shock.

"It should, seeing as I added a bit of artificial flavoring." Ax said with a nod.

"I thought you were joking Marco!" Cassie squealed. "I'm a vegetarian!"

"Yeah, so what are you doing knowing what Chicken taste like?" Marco muttered and Rachel smacked him across the shoulder.

"Do not worry Cassie," Ax said reassuringly. "It is only artificial flavoring, not actual chicken."

Ax's reasonable words failed to reassure Cassie, who continued to look sickened.

"Alright guys," Jake said, glancing at the expensive gold watch dangling from his right hand. "Marco, Ax let's go, Rachel, Cassie and Tobias, you follow five minutes after us."

"Good luck guys," Erek said. He shimmered for a second and then a hologram of an old blue station wagon appeared, hiding their pile of original clothes from sight.

«Nice.» Rachel said. «As long as some thugs don't decide to go on a joy ride, our stuff should be fine.»

«They'd better not» Marco said worriedly. «I'd hate for you to lose your dress Rachel.»

"Um, I'm not doing this just to hide your clothes," Erek said pointedly as Marco dodged Rachel's punch. "I need to be reasonably close by so you guys can maintain the visual uplink."

Jake, Marco and Ax, the three men strolling down the block towards the office building, silent except for each click as their highly polished shoes touched the road.  
Upon reaching the entrance they wordlessly pulled ID cards from their jacket pockets and handed them to the guard at the entrance.

"How you doing guys?" He muttered passing both them and the id cards through a scanner. "I'd watch your heads in there, the big boss is tense."

«Literally» Marco muttered in private though speak that only Jake and Ax could hear. «We make one mistake and our heads will be flying across the room before we can say 'oops'.»

They walked through the door, a blast of air rushing over them as they stepped under the frame.

«Air cleaner.» Ax informed them. «In this case, its intent is to try and prevent bugs from getting in, which could be the so called Andalite Bandits.»

Jake pushed open the large glass inner doors of the office scraper to reveal a large, luxurious lobby with gleaming white tiles and large open ceilings. Multiple marble pillars stretched from the floor to the ceiling.

Jake reached up to straighten his sunglasses, and as he did so, covertly squeezed down on the two eyescrews. Immediately a green, wireframe rendition of the building was projected onto his sunglasses lens. A second later, a glowing green line appeared, tracing a path for Jake to follow.

«This is too awesome!» Marco crowed, as he and Ax also flicked their sunglasses.

«Agreed.» Jake said, examining the map. «Everyone to your guard positions and then casually start making your way towards the 29th floor.»

Marco strolled over towards an elevator, flipping his Dracon beam in the air while Jake jogged up the flight of stairs heading to the fifth floor.

"Stills," One of the guards said with a nod.

Jake nodded in acknowledgement and continued up the next flight of stairs, feeling the pair of guards both above and below watching him.

«This is tense.» Marco muttered. «I feel like I'm going to get shot any second.»

«Just keep cool» Jake answered, now climbing the third set of stairs. He passed the burly guard at the top his id. The guard passed it through another scanner, grunted and shoved the card back to Jake.

«We've starting towards the building, we'll be up in a few» Tobias whispered.

«Good. Be Careful.» Jake said heading up the next flight of stairs, his hand clutched tightly around the Dracon beam. He nodded coolly to the bored guards on the 5th floor, starting to climb the 6th. He was halfway up when an explosion of noise rocked a few floors below.

Every guard on the 6th floor immediately tensed, whipping their Dracon Beams from their pockets.

"Oness-4218," the guard near the elevator indicated Jake, bellowing over the wail of alarms that had suddenly gone off. "You take front, Ecrass-1247 and I will cover. The rest of you stay here in case it's a decoy. Shoot to kill."

"Damn," Jake muttered, forced to take the front position as the two Yeerks dropped over to cover his rear. «What the hell just happened?» Jake demanded, trying to move down the stairs quickly and at the same time portray an image of caution for the benefit of the Yeerks.

«What does it sound like is going on!» Tobias snapped. «We're being attacked!»

«Damn!» Jake swore again. «Marco, Ax double back now!»

«Prince Jake» Ax said hesitantly. «If I might mention, Marco, yourself and I have given no reason for the controllers to suspect that we are other than when appear. Attempting to assist the others will blow our cover.»

«Do what I said Ax!» Jake bellowed, pausing halfway down the flight of stairs leading to the fourth floor, holding out his hand.

"Hold up guys," he murmured and they nodded, crouched low to the ground.

Jake gripped his Dracon beam tighter and crept stealthily to the bottom, quickly adjusting his sunglasses.  
Two anxious guards were all that remained, one at the landing of the stairs leading downward, the other keeping an eye on an elevator; the rest had apparently rushed off elsewhere at the sound of the explosion.

Jake moved to the left quietly, slowly raising the Dracon beam and taking careful aim at the elevator guard.  
A bright red light shot from the Dracon Beam with a high swishing sound, burning straight through the guard who fell to the ground without a sound.

"HEY!" The guard at the stair yelped, turning to face him as Jake twirled towards the two Yeerks racing down the stairs.  
Cranking the Dracon's power dial to the max, he fired, the beam lancing through the top of the stairs and exploding, splinters of wood flying everywhere.  
Jake's rear guard, caught in the blast of the explosion, crashed to the ground, nothing more than two crisp, lifeless, smoldering bodies.

Immediately following the shot, Jake threw himself to the ground.  
The crazed stair guards first shot, hit him in the arm and he felt an intense pain and heat dancing across his skin. "Filthy Andalite!" she screamed continuously squeezing the Dracon Beam trigger.

Jake rolled hard to the right, dodging the first two but taking a third in the leg before he managed to get behind a pillar.  
"Fuck," Jake breathed, reaching for his sunglasses, squeezing the eye screws again and appearing as an overlay atop the wireframe was the world in infrared vision.  
Several dull and quickly disappearing lines of red shot off in several directions, Jake assumed the aftereffects of the Dracon beams.  
More importantly drawing his attention though, was the large red blob, slowly making its way towards the pillow.

"Come out, come out!" she crowed gleefully, "I've got a capture to make and a new Sub-Visser rank on the way maybe a Visser if I'm lucky!" she added dreamily. "No more being stuck on guard duty!"

Jake closed his eyes momentarily then dove from behind the pillar the controller firing, missing!  
"Filthy Andalite!" she screamed at Jake who rolled to his knees, the Dracon beam he had dropped earlier pointing directly into her face and her panicked shot went wild

"Piece of shit Yeerk" Jake snapped, squeezing the trigger and a flood of red filled his vision.

"Damnit," Jake muttered, removing his sunglasses and closing his eyes momentarily at the sight of her boiling, bloated body. He had forgotten to lower the setting after blasting apart the stairs.

A clatter from behind! Jake whirled around, Dracon beam tracking the figure tumbling through the space where there were no longer stairs.

«Easy, don't shoot!» Marco said hurriedly, scrambling to his feet and firing his dracon beam up the gap, the flash of bright red light followed by a scream of pain and death.

"How many?" Jake hissed, jerking his head towards the gap Marco, racing over, standing back to back.

"Only the one and I nailed him." Marco panted. "You okay?"

"I'm good," Jake said, jamming back on his sunglasses. "Let's go."

Together, they took off down the next flight of stairs, reaching the second floor and the spiraling wooden staircase leading downwards.  
Eerie red lights flashed up and down the walls and ceilings.

«Twenty minutes.» Marco sighed grimly, noticing a wall clock that had somehow managed to escape damage.  
«I was kind of hoping to live until the New Year. Nice knowing you Jake buddy.»

«Stop talking like that! Let's go!» Jake yelled.

«Don't come in Jake!» Cassie screamed, half from fear half from pain. «There's too many of them!»

Marco hesitated looking at Jake.

«We don't leave our people behind!» Jake yelled and he and Marco tore down the last flight of steps, straight into a whirlwind of chaos.

Controllers were everywhere, all armed and all firing indiscriminately.  
Everything that could possibly be hit was either smoldering, or incinerated.  
A very scorched and sooty Cassie and Tobias were pinned down behind a heavy wooden desk, the only thing protecting them of a heavy barrage of fire from at least a dozen controllers.

Rachel, being Rachel was in the middle of all the action, rolling, ducking, diving for cover when she could, seeming to fire at everyone and anyone at once.  
Her entire body was covered with way too many burns but somehow she kept going anyway.

Jake and Marco's element of surprise lasted long enough to drop four controllers before they too were targets, trying to take cover where there was no protection to be offered, trying to dodge, when it was physically impossible to not get hit.

"Aaaaarrrrrrrrrggghhhhh!" Marco bellowed, Jim Locklear's voice booming in pain. His left arm had been burned right off of his shoulder.

Jake aimed, pulled the trigger furiously, and nailed the woman who had hit Marco in her face.

She fell lifelessly to the ground, the dracon beam clattering away across the floor.

Jake's brain whirred, taking in the situation. He had miscalculated, Cassie had been right! No time to think about that now, had to save someone... someone had to get out, carry on the fight. His eyes swept across the room, an idea beginning to take shape in his mind.

«The elevator!» he snapped, suddenly reaching a decision.

«It's locked down!» Tobias gasped weakly. «As soon as a problem is detected they're locked down.»

«We don't need to ride it! Rachel, Marco concentrate everything you've got on those controllers near Tobias and Cassie, get them out of there. I blast the elevator doors at full power and we drop down the shaft.»

«What if there are three subfloors underneath us!» Marco argued.  
He was panting, crouched behind an upended table.

«We'll die anyway!» Jake snapped and started firing, providing cross-cover for Rachel as she ran towards the desk, dracon beam blazing away.

«You look as if you could use some assistance» A confident voice commented.

A savior of blue fur leapt majestically down the entire flight of stairs, Ax in his full Andalite entirety, whipping his tail left and right the blade slicing through masses of now screaming controllers, the dracon beam clutched in his hand emitting a constant red glow.

«Yes! We love you again Ax!» Marco crowed as the scattered remains of off-balance controllers retreated through the front door.

«Good work Ax.» Jake said tersely, cranking the dial on his dracon beam to ten.  
He squeezed the trigger and a beam screamed through the air, blasting a huge jagged hole through the metal doors of the elevator.

«Marco, Ax, shoot anything that comes through the front-door. Everybody else, bird morphs, move, move, move!» Jake ordered.

«And just how do you suggest Ax and I get out, mighty leader?» Marco said sarcastically.

«Just do it! As soon as Tobias is morphed, he'll keep an eye on the door while you two  
morph birds and we'll all take the shaft straight to the 30th floor» Jake snapped.

«Brilliant.» Marco rolled his eyes at the plan, Dracon beam trained intently on the front door.

Ax held up a finger, pausing them from morphing and blasted all of the security cameras.

A tense minute passed as they raced back to their own human forms and then...

"Shit!" Jake whispered loudly, rolling behind a piece of furniture. "Where the hell is my morphing outfit?"

«Haha!» Marco laughed, as Rachel and Cassie dove behind their own piles of debris.  
«Had to shed them remember? Don't worry Rachel, you've got nothing I haven't seen before baby.»

«Do not worry Rachel, Marco is not really looking,» Ax informed her, yet they all continued onwards to bird at record speed.

«I'll kill you later» Rachel threatened while Marco whistled. «You are so dead, I'll—»

«What is that sound?» Ax demanded, pausing his bird morph momentarily.

«I don't hear anything, what are you talking about?» Rachel demanded aggressively.

_Clink clink clink._

With a distinct metallic clicking sound, a small metal sphere the size of a human fist crashed down the stairs and landed on the floor with an odd ringing thump.

«Up the elevator shaft!» Ax bellowed suddenly.

«Okay. Ax never yells, so I'm thinking we go up and we go up fast!» Tobias said and began beating his wings furiously, Rachel, Jake and Cassie a second behind.

Ax, reverted back to full andalite, scooped a nearly complete Marco bird up off the floor and raced towards the shaft a streak of blue fur.

«Ax, why'd you tell us-» Jake's question was interrupted by a roar of thunder as a terrific explosion rattled through the room above, shattering each window into thousands of shards.

Ax threw himself into the elevator shaft, ripples of heat billowing seconds behind.

«Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!» Ax screamed.

«Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!» Marco screamed.

«You have bird wings.» Ax reminded Marco.  
«Therefore,» he logically concluded «There is no need for you to scream.»

«Haha, yeah!» Marco sighed, relieved. «I'm good.»

«Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!» Ax continued, as they plummeted through the sub floors.  
Ax uncupped his hands and Marco flapped hard, bobbing up and down within the same area.

«Oh god, this doesn't look good Ax buddy.» Marco said sadly.

«I am not going to die... I think» Ax said uncertainly, and slashed his tail into the metal.  
Angry sparks danced through the air and a deep gash appeared down the side of the shaft as Ax struggled to slow his fall.

«Marco!» Jake bellowed. «There's nothing you can do for Ax. Get up here now we need to get to the 30th floor!»

«Good luck my blue furred friend» Marco saluted with his wing and took off after the others.

«You were a great warrior» Rachel called. «I'll avenge you, I swear.»

« Stop talking like he's dead, he's going to make it!» Tobias yelled at her.

«Sometimes we have to let go.» Cassie said quietly.

«Say it again Cassie, just say it again!» Tobias warned fiercely

«I said that sometimes-» Cassie started but Jake cut in.

«Tobias wasn't to be taken literally, Cassie.» he sighed. «Let's go people, we've got 24 more floors to fly up and we're going to have yeerks all over our-»

«Haha!» Ax crowed suddenly. «Though I believe my legs are severely broken and bleeding profusely, I have made it!» Ax said.

«Yes Axman, I knew you'd be fine!» Tobias cheered.

«Good job Ax.» Jake said, relieved. «How much time?»

«23 minutes and 42 of your seconds» Ax corrected, flapping hard to catch up.

«You know Ax, they—never mind.» Marco muttered sensing that no one was in the mood.

«Hard loop right!» Tobias yelled suddenly.

Reacting instinctively, all the Animorphs dropped their right wings, going into a hard right turn.  
A red dracon beam crackled past them, missing by mere inches.

«Ahhh!» Marco yelped. «I think my tail feathers are singed!»

The yeerks had obviously found the blasted hole in the elevator because a controller was lying on his back, feet held by a friend and firing up the shaft at the birds.

«Bombs away!» Marco yelled, returning his own little fire.

The man swore spectacularly as a glob hit into his face and he nearly dropped his dracon beam.

"FILTHY ANDALITE SCUM!" he roared, grabbing his sleeve and swiping at his face.

«Haha!» Marco laughed. «He shoots, he scores!»

«Come on, move, move!» Jake ordered, flapping hard. «Rachel keep moving, we are not going to fight this man in bird morph in an elevator shaft with barely any space to maneuver.»

«It's not that.» Rachel whispered. «Look up, I think we have a little problem.»

Jake's Peregine Falcon cranked its head upwards and Jake yelled a terrible, terrible word. «What the hell is an elevator doing in the elevator shaft!» Jake raged.

«I'm not sure but maybe, just maybe it's there so people can take it to whatever floor they need?» Marco offered.

«Heads up!» Tobias yelled.

The man, now able to see again, fired off another shot from his dracon beam.  
Ax swerved aside at the last second and the dracon beam just missed.

«Filthy Yeerk, you couldn't hit me if I stood still!» Tobias sneered.

All of the Animorphs froze in horror.

«Tobias… you just said that in open thought speech.» Jake said in a calm-before-the-storm voice.

«I know, I've got an idea» Tobias said, hovering in mid-air.

Another glob spun through the air, this time, launched with expertise and splattered in the man's eyes.  
Despite the situation, Jake had to smile inwardly as the man unleashed a wide variety and excessive quantity of alien and human swear words.  
The heart stopping click of the Dracon Beam being cranked up to its maximum power echoed up the elevator shaft.

«He's mad now» Rachel said accusingly. «As in, crank his Dracon Beam to the max mad.»

«Yes he is.» Tobias said smugly. «Bank left, now!»

An intense beam of crackling, energy and heat shot up the shaft, missing all of the Animorphs and blasting straight through both the bottom and top of the elevator.

«Through the hole, go guys go!» Tobias yelled. «I'll cover you!»

A diving red-tailed hawk, screamed through the air towards the man, spiraling, looping and twisting around every shot, nailing the man in the face.

Blinded and screaming in pain, the main dropped the dracon beam, which spiraled downwards until it was swallowed by darkness.

Tobias flared sharply and started beating his way back up the elevator shaft.

«Nice one Tobias, quick thinking!» Ax told him privately.

«Thanks Axman, someone's got to do it» Tobias said wearily.

«How much time?» Jake demanded. The other four Animorphs were flapping upwards as fast as possible, currently on the 16th floor.

«Fifteen of your minutes remaining» Ax said, a few floors behind.

«Faster!» Jake urged his team.

«What are we, horses?» Marco complained, a bit ahead of the others. «My birdie's butt hurts, my wings are tired and- AHHHHHHHHHHH!»

Red beams shot through the elevator doors above him.  
Marco stopped flapping immediately, staying below the hazardous doors.

«They are on each floor» Ax commented grimly, swooping up to join them. «Hoping to hit us by shooting at random intervals through the elevator doors.»

As if to prove his point, beams lanced through the elevator doors of the eighteenth floor.

«Keep going!» Jake ordered. «We'll get through them.»

«This has got to be the most stupidest, insane thing we're ever about to embark on and something tells me we won't get out of this one alive.» Marco sighed.

«Let's do it!» Rachel yelled, flapping up the shaft.

«Ladies and gentlemen it's no surprise that our first contestant can hardly wait to go in our hit reality show 'Let's all get Killed!'» Marco announced.

«Come on weenie!» Rachel roared as she crossed the line between safety and the doors of an elevator, starting on the journey to the top.

«No thanks, I'll see if you get killed first.»

«Marco, you won't have to worry about the dracon beams because I'll kill you myself.» Jake said coldly. «Get up the damn shaft, move move move!»

«Fifteen no probably, thirteen more minutes now until the New Year» Marco sighed as they all flapped despairingly upwards amid random bursts of dracon beams wincing and hoping they wouldn't get fried. «Is that too much to ask? Seriously, because if not I'd like to live long enough to get my driver's license without any one passenger limits. And a hot red car full of red hot girls. The babemobile!»

«Ahhhhh!» Cassie yelled, as a dracon beam shot underneath her, singeing her feathers.

«Keep moving!» Jake roared. «Only two more floors to go!»

«Pull your wings up a bit Cassie, more lift, increased control!» Tobias yelled more helpfully.

«You know what Jake?» Marco said suddenly. «I sure hope you thought about how we're going to get out of the elevator shaft once we reach the 30th floor.»

The elevator was silent, except for the blasting of Dracon beam fire and the flapping of wings then Jake started cursing explosively.

«I'll take that as a no.» Marco commented and swooped above the doors to the thirtieth floor, breathing a huge sigh of relief that he had made it without becoming KFC.

«You didn't think of a way for us to get out so we can fight back?» Rachel accused.

«Shut up Rachel, I'll think of something!» Jake growled, flapping hard to hover.

«I've got another idea» Tobias announced.

Unnoticed by the others, Tobias had flown onto the top of the pulley and morphed into Hork-Bajir using his talons and blades to keep from plummeting down way to many floors.

«Tobias» Jake said in relief. «you are kicking some serious a-»

«My GOODNESS Jake could you stop swearing so much!» Cassie interrupted.

«ss tonight» Jake continued, ignoring Cassie's plea. «Think you can get them open?»

Tobias dropped down the shaft, jamming his knee and elbow blades into the metal sides and screeching to a halt at the thirtieth doors.

«Tobias pries the doors open, Ax goes in first he'll be battle-ready fastest. Everyone else flies through after him, find a reasonably safe place and get dangerous.» Jake ordered quickly.

«Aargh!» Tobias roared—a dracon beam had shot through the metal door.

He jammed his wrist blade in the crack between the doors and yanked it sideways revealing two heavyset men, dark haired men with dracon beams.

"Hork-Bajir! How the hell!" one of them screamed firing at Tobias.

Tobias took the first hit in the shoulder then swung feet first inside the room slashing the man across the neck. The man's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped backwards onto the carpet.  
Tobias turned towards the other man who was backing away fast, screaming into a walkie talkie.

"Code Red! Code Red!" He yelled in a panicked voice. "Andalite Bandits have breached  
Level 30!"

«Get that walkie talkie away from him!» Jake yelled, swooping into the room and beginning to demorph to human as quickly as possible.

«Gee, why didn't I think of that» Tobias said sarcastically, racing after the man.

The man targeted his dracon beam and fired, forcing Tobias to jump aside.

"Adret-2743, backup is on the way." A rough voice barked over the speaker.

Adret dropped his walkie-talkie to the ground, steadying the dracon beam with his other hand and slowly backing up.

«Hey Babe!» Marco told Adret pleasantly and the man whirled around in confusion to see a mish-mash of bird and human.

Realizing his mistake, Adret turned back around, far too late—taking advantage of the distraction, Tobias closed the distance between them, slashed his wrist blade sharply and the man fell to the ground, dead.

"Nice job." Jake said, nodding to Tobias. "Time?"

«Seven of your minutes» Ax announced, standing alert in his Andalite form, tail blade swaying intensely.

"Damn!" Jake yelled in frustration, orange fur sprouting among his body. "That's going to leave us with about five minutes after we're done morphing to put a stop to all of this."

Jake's eyes swept the room, taking in the staircase on the right, Ax guarding it at the bottom and the hallway directly ahead of them, which Tobias was standing in front of, Dracon beam aimed and ready to blast anyone who attempted to come after them.

«Lets do it!» Rachel growled excitedly, now an adrenaline pumped grizzly bear.

_Clank, clank...clank clank._

«Oh no, not another bomb!» Cassie cried her wolf ears pinned back at the sound banging and clanging it's way down the stairs.

Marco the gorilla barreled forward, snatched the metallic sphere on the third to last step and hurled it back up the stair well.  
A satisfyingly loud scream of panic erupted from upstairs cut short seconds later by the thunderous explosion of the plasma bomb.  
Waves of intense heat roared down the stairwell, rippling their animals fur and causing a brief second of pain and discomfort before it rolled outwards and dissipated.

«Damn, Yeerks» Jake panted. «Good save Marco, let's move. Ax, time?»

«5.12 of your minutes Prince Jake» Ax said tersely.

«Erek?» Jake said. «It's almost five minutes to midnight cut the main emergency system.»

«Okay, are you sure you guys can get to the control room?» Erek said.  
«Once we cut the main emergency system, the secondary emergency power systems are going to come online in ten minutes.»

«Just do it!» Jake snapped. «Tobias shoot down the door!»

«Right. Good luck guys.» Erek said as Tobias squeezed the trigger of the Dracon Beam and the red beam tore through the door with a tremendous boom.

Through the opening three Hork-Bajir stood waiting in a dark room.  
Beyond these Hork-Bajir, in the center of the room, taking up a vast majority of the space, was a massive array of panels and consoles, glowing blue, buttons and lights flickering on and off.  
A dozen more Hork–Bajir were scattered around the room, waiting.

«Andalite bandits!» they yelled collectively.

«Show time!» Rachel said gleefully.

Tobias leapt through the opening, slamming the first Hork-Bajir into the ground and launching into a rumble-tumble slashfest.

With a roar that shook the ceilings of the underworld, Jake's tiger bound into the room engaging the second Hork-Bajir.

«I've got the third one guys!» Cassie yelled, leaping at the third Hork-Bajir's throat.

The Hork-Bajir smacked Cassie aside with her right arm, Cassie yelping then leaping back to her feet with a snarl.

«WARTIME!» Rachel bellowed ferociously and turned to take on four Hork-Bajir at once.

«Damn it Rachel!» Jake snapped, a deep cut on his right shoulder.  
«This is not the time for any sheman bullshit—Marco, help her!»

«Here comes your knight in shining armor baby!» Marco sang.

He smashed a powerful right hook into one of the Hork-Bajir's chest and the Hork-Bajir fell to the ground, breathing in a terribly abnormal way.

«I can handle this myself!» Rachel yelled, slashing ferociously at another Hork-Bajir.

The Hork-Bajir growled in pain and retaliated by taking a chunk from the grizzly's arm.

«Dapsen, Dapsen Dapsen!» Ax said desperately.

He was fighting tremendously and heroically but not even an Andalite could fight five Hork-Bajir at once. His tail cracked left and right at lightning speeds as he was slowly forced into a corner, bleeding badly.

With a howl, a wolf went soaring across the room, back-flipped into the control panel, sending sparks and smoke everywhere and smashed into the ground, unmoving.

The victorious Hork-Bajir leapt at Jake, who was tearing and clawing at his opponents chest-the Hork-Bajir's crossed arms, the only thing preventing Jake's tiger from ripping out his neck.

«Jake behind you!» Ax yelled.

With unnatural speed, Jake rolled to the side and the Hork-Bajir sneaking up behind him brought her bladed fist smashing into her partner's whose eyes widened in surprise and then dimmed. Taking advantage of the Yeerk's shock, Jake leapt at the other Hork-Bajir, knocking her down to the ground.

«Say hey to Hades for me» Jake said coldly, ripping her throat out. «TIME?»

«Three» Ax said tersely, barely deflecting a blade that whipped at his neck—as it was, a deep cut appeared, leaking black blood.

Tobias, having dispatched of his Hork-Bajir in a grueling battle, ran over to help Ax, engaging two of the Hork-Bajir drawing them away.

«Auuugh!» Marco cried and fell to the ground as a Hork-Bajir punched a hole straight through his stomach.

Rachel, covered with blood and cuts, sent the culprit's head flying with a heavy swing of her paw.

«Ax, deactivate this thing so we can bail!» Jake bellowed. «Rachel cover him!»

Ax staggered out of the pile of Hork-Bajir, one stalk eye missing, the other hanging limply and the rest of him generally looking like a pile of raw blue meat.

With a ferocious roar, Jake threw himself at Ax's remaining two enemies.  
Both were fresh and healthy, hardly any cuts at all, while Jake wasn't in the best of condition and heading full force towards bad.

Ax typed maniacally at the keyboard. «I have disabled the main security layer, now there is a hundred digit security code I must type!»

«Do it!» Jake ordered, noticing reinforcements pouring through the door. Damn.

With a yell of defiance and exhilaration, Rachel threw herself at the half-dozen Hork-Bajir.

«Damn!» Jake yelled in frustration, a slash from a Hork-Bajir rendering one of his front paws useless.

A blur of blades leapt across the room knocking Jake's assailant away.

"GRASH NASH!" The Hork-Bajir roared, struggling to get up.

Tobias pummeled the Hork-Bajir with an assault of bladed fist, blood splurting everywhere until it gurgled, eyes dimming.  
«Take care of the other guy!» Tobias yelled. «I'll help Rachel!»

He was limping with a deep gash on his left leg, but otherwise in good shape.

«Eighty-four seconds, eighty-four seconds» Ax muttered frantically, blinking blood out of his eyes, fingers dancing across the keyboard.

A Hork-Bajir head flew over the control panel, and exploded in a pulpy mess of blood and flesh on the opposite wall.

«Tobias?» Ax said in alarm.

«Not my head–Arrrghhh!» Tobias yelled, taking a deep slash across the shoulder.

«Six, four, two, nine» Ax muttered, then frowned slightly, hitting the three key again and then again.

The arm blade of a Hork-Bajir flew towards Jake from nowhere.  
Shocked, Jake, rolled hard to his right, inches away from being decapitated anyway, saw the blade flying towards his head, slowing...slowing...stopping.

«No! No!» Ax yelled as everything started moving again almost immediately.  
The Hork-Bajir blade crashed down to the floor, missing by inches, its owner looking puzzled.

«Ellimst!» Rachel growled.  
She was blinded in one eye, missing her left paw and half her face was lacerated but she and Tobias were still battling four Hork-Bajir.

«Shit,» Jake said shakily. He was having a hard time deciding whether to be pissed or secretly grateful. «What's wrong Ax?»

«When Ellimist froze time, I lost my place in the code! There is only a minute and nine of your seconds left, and I have to start all over!» Ax yelled hysterically.

Jake decided he was pissed.  
«Start typi—arggghhh!» Jake roared as the Hork-Bajir slashed at him again.

The blade ripped deep into his tiger's chest and blood spilled onto the floor.  
Jake hit the floor hard, groaning in pain then pushed himself up to his paws.

«Prince Jake!» Ax said in alarm.

«Type the code, type the damn code!» Jake yelled, swiping the air so violently, that despite his numerous wounds, he made the Hork-Bajir hesitate.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rachel sway.  
Two of the six Hork-Bajir were lying in a heap of blood on the floor—the other four were tearing at Rachel.

"Where the hell is Tobias?" Jake wondered, taking another slash across his face.

Answering his question, a beam of red light cackled through the air, traveling straight through Jake's opponent's head.  
The Hork-Bajir, reached a trembling hand towards the hole, then fell to the ground.

Tobias turned the dracon beam on the four Hork-Bajir and Rachel.

«Don't move Yeerk filth!» Tobias snapped.

The Yeerks ignored him completely and slashed a long, jagged, diagonal cut across the grizzly's chest. Rachel staggered again and roared feebly, swatting at the air with bloody stumps.

_Cllllliiick_

This time, Tobias had their full attention or more truthfully, the dracon beam he had just cranked back up to ten did.

A fast moving Hork-Bajir wrapped his arm blade around Rachel's grizzly's neck.

«So...» Tobias said slowly, trying to remain calm.«Think you're faster than a dracon beam?»

«Are you?» A hork-bajir grunted, leveling his own beam at Tobias.

Jake dragged his tiger body forward next to Tobias, glaring at the four Hork-Bajir.

«Ninety-seven more digits, fifty-six seconds» Ax muttered tersely, his fingers frozen over the keyboard due to the standoff.

«GET OFF ME!» Rachel screamed smacking at the Hork-Bajir.

He dodged easily and slashed her across the face in retaliation.

«Shoot them Tobias!» Jake ordered quietly. «Highest setting, kill them all right now, or we'll never get out of here alive. Rachel… I'm sorry.»

Rachel swore at him and made anther valiant but hopeless effort to break free.  
Tobias still held the dracon beam out, hesitating.

«Speed. Speed is essential Tobias» Ax said quietly.

«Come on!» Jake snapped. «Do it Tobias!»

A red-light whizzed out of the dracon beam and reduced Rachel's grizzly's legs to a twisted, blackened mess of ash.  
Roaring in pain and agony, without any legs to support her, she fell forward.

Alarmed, the Hork-Bajir reached out to pull her back upright—Tobias threw his dracon beam towards Ax and lunged across the room.

Surprised, the four Hork-Bajir were caught off guard and Tobias slashed them all across the face with a quick wicked slash of sharp blades.  
One of the Hork-Bajir growled and jammed Rachel's head against the Dracon gun barrel, but before he could move, a bright red light shot straight through his head, leaving behind a cylinder of clear space.  
Needless to say, the Hork-Bajir crumpled to the ground.

«Nice shot Ax» a voice coughed weakly.

Marco was conscious but groggy, in an immense amount of pain and clinging on to life with a gaping hole inside of his Gorilla's body.

«The code!» Jake screamed in anguish. «Type the damn code!»  
Bleeding, staggering and with an amazingly massive temper, Jake forced his tiger body over to join the battle with Tobias against the remaining three Hork-Bajir.  
Another bright red light zipped overhead, missing Jake's tiger by a few inches.

«Dapsen!» Ax cried in thought-speak. «Someone shot my left arm off!»  
The statement, was a death sentence; a one armed andalite typed half as slow and there were less than thirty seconds before midnight.

Sincere regret filled the eyes of the Hork-Bajir who did it as Ax's retaliation shot incinerated her.

«no—No—NO!» Ax screamed defiantly, his lone hand dancing across the keys like a wildman and he started to shrink.

«Ahhhhgggg!» Tobais yelled, as the Hork-Bajir he was fighting slammed into him the momentum carrying the both of them straight through the 30th floor window in a shower of glass shards.

«Tobias!» Jake yelled distractedly.

The remaining Hork-Bajir took advantage and kicked Jake in the face with tremendous force, and the tiger's vision momentarily slid in and out of focus.  
Jake growled and stabbed at one of the three hazy, weaving Hork-Bajir, only to hit air.  
The Hork-Bajir drew back its arm blade and brought it slashing down.  
Jake roared pitifully as his extended paw detached from his leg and splattered to the ground.

«Demorph!» A high voice yelled, and the Hork-Bajir glanced at this new threat of Marco, still a gorilla with a gaping hole in its chest but fast returning to his original form, running on stubby legs for the dracon beam Ax had dropped earlier. «I'm unconscious for a few minutes and this is what happens! Demorph!»

Another blade swiped at Jake and he just barely ducked under it.  
The second blade hit him on his side and dug a deep gash into the tiger's body.  
Finally succumbing to its numerous wounds, the tiger and Jake fell to the ground.

Marco dove across the room, snatched up the dracon beam and brought it to eye level to find the Hork-Bajir's tail whipping at his neck.

"Aaaaahhh!" Marco yelled throwing up his arms, the left one falling to the floor a second later.

Half yelling, half crying from the pain, Marco desperately kicked the Dracon beam across the room and the Hork-Bajir's giant clawed toe snatched at the floor instead.

«Hang on Marco!» a chimpanzee cried desperately. Ax, pulling off one of the most spectacular feats of morph control in history, had managed to keep his Andalite arm until the very end and was now using chimpanzee fingers to type at full speed.  
Thirty more numbers to type in ten, now seven seconds!  
Sparks seemed to fly from the chimpanzee's fingers, Ax sensing every second tick away.

"Behind you!" Marco yelled.

Ax knew exactly what Marco meant by 'Behind you!'; the Hork-Bajir was preparing to slice him in half.

"Hey, look, I'm mooning you!" Marco yelled desperately at the Hork-Bajir, bravely trying to draw him away from Ax.

«I put my duty before life, my honor before selfishness.» Calmly, sadly but quickly typing in the last few numbers, Ax went through the Andalite death ritual in his head, acceptable in situations where you would never have enough time to say it aloud.  
«In doing so, I take solace in the fact that my fellow warriors will avenge my death and that the precious lives of those I fight to protect will continue on for that much longer.»

«Access granted» The female voice of the computer informed—the scream of a hawk ripped through the air— «Are you sure you want to disable project Cyllabis?»

Ax confirmed the order, the same time that the Hork-Bajir brought it's blades swinging down to kill him and Tobias exploded through the empty space where the glass window used to be, stretching his talons forward, stretching...stretching...nailing the startled Hork-Bajir across the eyes!

"GRAHHHHHH!" the Hork-Bajir bellowed, and seriously distracted, it's blades crashed into a panel amid angry sparks rather than the fatal decapitation that had looked imminent a second ago.  
A red beam shot him in the back of the head and the Hork-Bajir keeled over, Marco putting him out of his misery.

«I cannot thank you enough Tobias!» Ax said gratefully, trembling slightly.

«Anytime Axman.» Tobias said shakily. «Anytime.»


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Animorphs.

* * *

An anxious andalite, hork-bajir and gorilla strode around the room, attempting to more or less kick their friends awake and in Ax's case, giving some of the controller Hork-Bajir a few extra jabs.

«Rachel, rise and shine hot stuff» Marco hissed, nervously shaking her blood matted grizzly shoulder. «The early bird gets a kiss, courtesy of yours truly.»

Ax was near Jake, his stalk eyes locked on to the hallway beyond the door.  
«Prince Jake, I strongly implore you to achieve a state of mental consciousness.»

As if heeding his plea, Jake came to life with a groan. «Damn, am I captured?»

Rachel took the more direct approach—a few seconds before Jake was fully human she snapped awake, rammed Marco through the chest with her remaining claws and slammed him into the wall. «DIE YEERK FILTH!!»

«Oh jeez!» Marco choked. «Chill Xena, you're not captured! Chill it's me!»

The grizzly bear growled in anger and confusion before finally realizing it was Marco.

«Even worse.» Rachel snarled, letting Marco fall to the ground.

She reeled forward, her twisted mess of legs failing to support her and Marco threw out his gorilla's hand to steady her.

«You need to demorph. I'll keep you steady...wanna go steady?» Marco joked.

«No duh I need to demorph.» Rachel knocked him aside, refusing his assistance and leaned against a wall instead somehow managed to stay balanced. «Besides... look the other way. Scratch his eyes out if he so much as thinks of glancing towards me T-Bo.»

«Prince Jake,» Ax said. «I must admit I am quite unnerved. Why aren't the yeerks barging in here to finish us off?»

"Not sure." Jake muttered, looking around warily. "Good work people. Tobias, Ax you guys were outstanding tonight."

«I expect nothing less of myself» Ax said, semi-modestly.

A wolf moaned and pushed itself to its feet.  
Cassie was finally up and 'about time too' Macro had added crudely.

«Bird morphs people and let's get the hell out of here before the Yeerks decide to send their version of the SWAT team»

«I'll cover you guys» Tobias said, moving in front of the door and gripping the Dracon beam tightly.

Before proceeding to his harrier morph, Ax went over to the console, typed a few commands and struck repeatedly at it with his tail until the wires started smoking and sparking.

«That should keep the Yeerks busy» he smirked.

«Take this» Tobias said, passing Ax the Dracon beam once he had finished morphing.  
«At least I'll have one to give back...» he added in a mutter.

Tobias waited for Ax to flap out through the broken window he had involuntarily made earlier and then with one last look behind, threw himself out of the window.

«Show-off» Marco commented jealously as Tobias went zooming downwards, the Hork-Bajir body melting into that of his hawk.

«Hey, if you want to be helpless in mid-morph when a whole bunch of Yeerks decides to bust into the room, be my guest» Tobias said. «Besides I was forced to do this earlier and there's plenty of time to morph before I reach the ground.»

«That was so awesome!» Rachel enthused, as they swooped down into Erek's waiting hologram. «We kicked butt!»

«Sure we did» Marco said sarcastically. «Almost all of us bled to death, Ax was about two seconds away from not typing the code in on time and we didn't even get to say 'Happy New Year'»

"I'm glad you guys are okay," Erek said letting out a big sigh of tension. "I had no idea what was going on in there, your sunglasses broke."

"As soon as we got in, alarms went off and two seconds later it was war time." Rachel shrugged grabbing her dress.

"Shields up Data." Marco toned, holding his own clothing.  
"30 percent transparency on the viewscreens please."

The hologram went up, fully opaque—"You don't follow orders very well!" Marco complained— and they quickly changed back into their New Year's Eve gala.

"Another victory that nearly wasn't for the Animorphs" Marco said wearily.  
"Hey Rachel, we should celebrate; the night is still young maybe you'd like to—"

"Technically it is morning Marco." Ax pointed out.

"Yes, thank you Albert Einstein," Marco said sarcastically. "So Rachel I..." he stopped, seeing she was already walking off.

"You're in denial!" Marco called after her. "You know you love me!"

"Would you knock it off?" Jake asked, irritably. "I'm out of here... good mission guys."

Jake nodded at Cassie, saluted Ax and Tobias and started off when something made a loud crunching underfoot.  
Lifting his leg he saw a powdery yellow substance on the sidewalk and his shoe.  
He knelt down suspiciously.

"Wait." he commanded Cassie, who had suddenly tried to take off.

A vein was throbbing in Jake's head and his face was turning redder and redder.

"Is this the Plutonium pill you were supposed to eat?" Jake bellowed.

Cassie shivered uncontrollably, giving a slow nod.

"What the HELL did Tobias and Ax say!" Jake yelled. "It's your damn fault the alarms went off as soon as you stepped into the building"

Hearing the noise, Rachel had come back and she was staring at Cassie in disbelief.

"I-I told you I'm a vegetarian and I—"

"I don't CARE what you are! You jeopardized the entire missions, half the town THE ENTIRE WORLD because your sorry little ass couldn't handle ARTIFICIAL flavored chicken?"

Marco silently covered Ax's mouth before he could tell Jake that the percentage was actually 66.4 percent of the town.

"It wasn't just the artificial chicken flavor it-it was radioactive!" Cassie countered.

"Did Ax NOT EXPLAIN that it wouldn't harm you?" Jake yelled.

"You didn't want to eat it either!" Cassie pleaded.

"Don't give me ANY of that!" Jake snarled, turning away. "I am SO MAD right now I cannot believe this!"

"I'm sorry!" Cassie said quietly, trying to catch someone's eye but they all refused to look at her.

«At least... at least we stopped the yeerks» Tobias struggled to say, trying to be nice.

"We'll deal with this tomorrow morning." Jake snapped at Cassie. "I'm out of here."

«Ah... Prince Jake» Ax said nervously. «Your shoe it has trace amounts of radioactive material on it.»

"No need." Erek said. "I can take care of the cleanup. In a previous life, I played someone who was in charge of safety procedures during the development of the Atomic bomb."

"Seems like you played every damn person under the sun." Jake muttered.

Frowning, Erek vacuumed the substance up one of his fingers and bombarded Jake's shoe and the spot on the sidewalk with some kind of rays.

Jake took the shoe back without a word and marched off towards the festivities to see if his parents were still around.  
Ax went bird and flew off with Tobias—Erek gave Cassie a gentle pat on the shoulder before he too took off and Marco and Rachel followed behind Jake, leaving a stricken Cassie behind.

"Oh god," Cassie choked, hot wet tears spilling from her eyes and splattering on the sidewalk below. "Oh god, oh god, oh god," she repeated softly.

"That STUPID girl! Always causing…" Jake's voice came from the distance, carried by the wind and then the crying really started.

Cassie fell to her knees and sobbed, sobbed for what seemed like hours until the tears were gone but the deep sadness remained tugging at her heart.

Slowly she climbed up to her feet and started the long walk down the blocks back towards the New Year's extravaganza, thinking, her heart reeling, Jake's furious tirade playing over and over in her mind, her friend's disappointed looks.

"Where have you been Cassie?" Walter demanded, his daughter appearing suddenly in a break in the crowds, slumping dejectedly into sight— despite the disappointment of the globe having not worked correctly, the festivities were still going strong.

"I was hanging out with Rachel and Jake," she said glumly.

"Oh." Walter's frown disappeared. "Let us know next time, okay? I was looking for you."

"There probably won't be a next time," Cassie said softly.

"What was that Cassie?" Omibay asked placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"Nothing...nothing at all mom," Cassie whispered patting her hand.

They walked a few blocks in silence until they passed the vehicle blockades and came upon Walter's white pickup truck.  
It was a gleaming, powerful Ford F-250 and caused Walter a pang of anger every time he saw it.

Unbeknown to him but all too well to Cassie, Marco had redefined the definition of destroyed after attempting to drive her daddy's old, dusty, dark blue truck.  
They had been force to steal it on a mission involving the Yeerks and an alien creature called a Veelek, but fortunately, Walter had assumed a bunch of delinquents had run off with it rather than Marco, Cassie and Jake.

Rachel often joked that he wasn't far off if you considered Marco to be a delinquent.

Walter frowned at his new pickup truck and twisted the key in the engine.  
The 'weaker sounding than my old pickup' engine kicked into a life and they started down the long road home.

"Did you have fun Cassie?" Omibay smiled.

Cassie snuggled back into the black chairs and sighed. "I guess so."

Omibay also snuggled back into her seat. "Ooh this feels so good after standing up all that time."

Walter snorted. "The old pickup's seats were better. My butt feels like it's sitting on a sharp, cold, boulder."

Omibay just laughed. "So, Cassie, your father and I are thinking about joining the Sharing."

"You-you are?" Cassie said in shock, bolting upright in her seat. "How come?"

"It seems like a good organization," Walter said. "I was talking to one of the leaders, Mr. Chapman, you principal?"

"Yes," Cassie confirmed quietly.

"He heard about the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic and wants me to be the head of a new 'Wonderful Wildlife Program' the Sharing's opening this month!" Walter continued proudly.

"Wow!" Cassie babbled. "That's—that's wonderful!"

"And of course he knew that you and I work together and he said that you could be in charge of the Junior Office! He said that it'd usually be preserved for an older person but because of your skill and maturity you could have the job!"

"It'd be just like the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center except you'd sort of be in your father's position and have people assisting you!" Omibay glowed.

"Wow." Cassie said shakily. "This-this is so overwhelming!"

"Take some time to think about baby girl," Walter said, patting her on the knee.

"Hands on the wheel Walter!" Omibay said sharply.

"Omibay... I still have a hand on the wheel, I'm simply patting my daughter's knee"

"What if a deer jumped out in front of the car?" Omibay questioned.

"You're right, I wouldn't be able to step on the brakes with one hand." Walter said sarcastically. Omibay gave him a look.

"Besides, this truck is so flimsy I bet the deer would be perfectly fine and we'd end up dead. Now my old pickup would've–"

Cassie and Omibay groaned loudly.

"Please don't start talking about your old pickup again." Omibay sighed.

"All I'm saying is they don't make them like they used to!" Walter said defensively.

The ride continued with Walter reminiscing about his old truck and all the adventures he'd had with it as a boy, despite Omibay's pleadings and empty threats that he would be on the couch tonight if he continued.

Cassie closed her eyes sitting in silence with her thoughts.

"Cassie..." Omibay whispered, touching her shoulder.

"Hmmm..." Cassie mumbled, opening her eyes—she had drifted off, they were home.

Kissing her parents good night, Cassie walked quietly into her room.  
Too exhausted to change into PJ's, she collapsed into the bed and instead of hitting her soft springy mattress, landed on top of someone.

A hand slapped gently over her mouth before she could scream and a lightbeam appeared under the stranger's face.

Cassie flinched, expecting to see the cold eyes of a deranged serial killer but instead saw the kind, illuminated face of Erek King.  
"Hey, sorry if I scared you again." He apologized, lifting Cassie off of him and placing her on the bed.

He stood to his feet with a sigh. "Nice bed." He complimented. "Very comfortable."

"What are you doing here?" Cassie gasped, still trying to slow her terrified heart. "It's one-forty in the morning!"

"I've got to tell you something." Erek said nervously. "I only have a minute and it's really important so listen up..."

As Cassie listened to Erek's message, her eyes grew wider and wider.

"Oh my god!" she said. "Do you realize the implications of this?"

"I certainly do... which is why I had to come to you." Erek looked at her with haunted eyes. "It—it was a struggle. I know you're going to call the others and that's probably going to lead to..." his voice railed off.

"Violence and murder," Cassie supplied sadly and Erek shook his head jerkily.

"Massive violence and murder. I-I managed to trick myself into telling you because you're a pacifist, you're against violence and I told myself you'd find a peaceful way to use the information I gave you... even though I know it's not going to happen." Erek laughed bitterly.

"Thanks Erek," Cassie said solemnly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's tough doing what we don't want to."

"We all have our limits" Erek shrugged. "You have yours, I have mine and they have theirs. But you know, you never lose sight of your limits. Like tonight. The others might be mad but I just want you to know I respect that."

Cassie smiled, then they both tiptoed downstairs, Erek quietly letting himself out the front door then tearing down the dirt road at some sub-sonic speed, Cassie sighing and reaching for the phone in the kitchen, dialing Rachel's number.

It rang several times, before an angry voice picked up and snarled. "Call me again weenie and I swear I really will get a restraining order on you. And I'm saving the caller numbers so I can prove how annoying you are to the judge."

"Rachel it's Cassie! I—" Cassie started then the phone cut-off.

"Must have dropped the signal," Cassie muttered re-dialing Rachel, though she knew in her heart that Rachel was still mad at her.

The phone rang on forever, proving her heart right.  
Cassie tried the home phone and it picked up on the third ring.

"Unless you're the morgue telling us Rachel's dead, stop calling and go away!" Jordan yelled.  
"Don't think I didn't hear that!" Cassie heard Rachel yell in the background.

Sighing, she hung up the phone, started to call Jake's house then hesitated.  
He was probably still mad at her. Furious even.  
She hung up and quietly headed back upstairs, went into her room and rooted around her drawer for Marco's number.

"Strictly for Animorph business," he had said jokingly when handing the number to her.  
"So don't call asking for dates and stuff, okay?" At least she hoped he was joking.

She briefly wondered whether Marco would consider going out with her as she went back downstairs and dialed his number.  
The first time it was busy, the second time she got through.

"Rachel! I knew you couldn't resist!" A joyous voice said with a smirk.

"Marco... it's me Cassie, DON'T HANG UP its important!" she added hurriedly.

"What?" Marco said flatly. He might be mad but he would at least listen to her.

"Erek just told me something really important. Get the others for an emergency meeting at the barn!" Cassie said.

"Emergency, middle of the night and Erek." Marco complained.  
"Those three things shouldn't be mixed together, it's the prequel to loss of life."

He told her he'd see her in an hour and a half with the others then muttered something about stupid Yeerks ruining his beauty sleep before hanging up.

Cassie hung up the phone and sighed, pulling on some clothes and a jacket before sneaking out the backdoor. It was going to be a long night.

"What the hell!" Jake exploded angrily.

The Animorphs were clustered around Cassie's barn at 3:10 am, shivering in the cool night air, wearing only their thin morphing outfits.

"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke calling us all here Marco?" Rachel snapped, pacing recklessly back and forth.

"Hey don't shoot the messenger. Cassie said it was important" Marco defended.

"Then where the hell is she!" Jake yelled.

"Here I am," Cassie said suddenly, walking towards them out of the forest.

"How the hell can you be late for your own damn meeting!" Jake demanded.

«Prince Jake, I politely remind you that Cassie's parents are sleeping and may awaken do to the increased volume of your voice.» Ax cautioned.

"I went for walk. I-I had to think," Cassie stammered. "I'm sorry!"

Jake kicked a pitchfork to the ground with a thump, then took a deep breath and placed it back in its position.

"Fine. Fine. What did you call this meeting about?" he said struggling to calm down.

His throbbing vein indicated that he was anything but calm—at least he was trying.

"Erek was waiting for me when I got home." Cassie started.

"Wow those guys travel fast. You left about the same time as the Chee, plus you had a pick-up truck," Marco commented. "Continue please."

"And well... he said that all of the highest Yeerk commanders near Earth are holding a meeting. The council is also overseeing the meeting through some kind of z-space subthingy."

«A Z-Space Sub-transponder used to transmit, receive and encode auditory and visual communication over vast distances. They did not create this themselves of course, they stole the technology from Andalites.» Ax interjected.

"Every 62 months," Cassie continued, after Ax had given his little lesson on Z-space Sub-transponders, "Erek said they assess and re-evaluate their plans, goals and leaders."

«Ah yes...» Ax said slowly. «We Andalites had suspicions that every 5.4 galactic years or approximately 5.16 of your years high-ranking yeerks all over the universe would hold council at different times with the Council of Thirteen. Until know we did not know for certain and the alleged meetings were always planned with great secrecy.»

"Do you know what this means?" Rachel said excitedly. "The vissers, all gathered together in one place!"

"But...why?" Marco questioned. "It makes no sense?"

«The yeerks are stupid?» Ax hypothesized with a shrug. «It would be much wiser to at least hold the meeting through viewscreens; it's what Andalites would do if they even needed to hold such meetings. I remember my teacher telling me it had something to do about deception and yeerk culture but—»

"We know, we know" Marco sighed. "You were too busy making out with the Andalite chick behind you."

«Wrong.» Ax snapped. «I was excited about the—what you humans would call International science fair later on that day.»

"The Energizer bunny on nuclear fusion powered batteries, eh? Or is it Fission, I always get the two mixed up." Marco admitted.

«Haha!» Ax laughed heartily. Then he stopped.

«I apologize, I still have much to learn about when humans are joking. No, there was this beautiful girl, her name was Illia, who I was hoping would win for her Quantum Z-Space plotter. You may laugh at the simplicity of such a thing nowadays but keep in mind that this was a few years ago. I helped her think of the idea and also helped her obtain several of the parts she needed!»

"I knew there were girls involved somewhere!" Marco laughed. "A gopher for the beautiful scientist... How come you suck at science so much then?"

Ax bristled. «I—»

"Focus!" Jake commanded sharply.

«Yes Prince Jake» Ax said aloud. «I apologize.»  
Then he whispered to Marco, «I forgot more science than your entire species combined knows.»

Marco frowned as Jake started talking about how this was a huge opportunity they somehow had to take advantage of.

«You know, this is probably why we got away early.» Tobias commented from the rafters. He ruffled his hawk feathers before continuing.  
«The yeerks were too busy with this meeting thing and there was no one with brains to handle the situation. Having said that, we still just barely managed to pull it off, so if you think that office building was bad, this is going to be ten thousand times worse. Every high-ranking controller, every single one.» he emphasized.

"He's right." Marco nodded. "There's going to be so much security it won't be funny.  
People with guns ranging from Atom-level Annihilating to Z-Space Transmogrifiers"—  
Marco held up a hand before Ax could open his mouth to protest that there were no such weapons—"Bug fighters patrolling the skies, Gleet Biofilters installed on every portal, the visser's personal elite hork-bajir... do you know how freaking big and bad those guys are? Huff and puff and blow the joint up with dynamite."

"Who cares!" Rachel interjected leaping to her feet, her eyes blazing excitedly, all traces of tiredness gone. "This is our big chance to crush the yeerks!"

"Maybe... Maybe we could offer peace," Cassie suggested timidly.

Everyone turned and stared at her.

"I mean... maybe we'll be able to appeal to the highest of the yeerks, make them see there's a different, a better way." Cassie added enthusiastically.

"Battle. Morphs." Rachel emphasized. "We go in our biggest and most dangerous animals we have and fight the biggest fight of our lives! Some of us might die, but the yeerks will suffer the most!"

"Who knows what creatures these other visser's have?" Marco argued. "Who knows what kind of defenses are in place? We have no information! And might I add Rachel, that your dress looks even hotter when you're all excited about the possibility of battle."

"Jake? You think I'm right, don't you?" Rachel asked aggressively.

"No way, Jake buddy tell her I'm making more sense" Marco protested.

"Well..." Jake said slowly, refusing to commit either way. "We are obviously doing something and we need to decide soon because they've all ready been in session for four or five hours. Opinions, Ax?"

«I cannot give a truthful opinion for I have biased reasons for wanting to go... Visser 3, my brother's killer, who's death I have sworn to avenge.» Ax said calmly.

«Yeerk pool!» Tobias exclaimed suddenly. «If the yeerks are off holding this big General war plan meeting thing and all of their efforts are being put into security...»

"It's probably empty!" Macro laughed. "Smart observation for a birdbrain" he teased.

"So we go down to the Yeerk Pool instead of this meeting?" Rachel asked incredulously.  
"We—Stop staring at me Weenie!" she roared.

"Who can blame me for admiring such beauty," Marco sighed, leaning back on a bale of hay.

"Hey!" Jake snapped. "Focus here people!"

"I am focusing! Well at least my eyes are." Marco joked.

Marco hurriedly scrambled backwards as Rachel snatched up the pitchfork.

"I was joking! Jeez, I love feisty girls but you take it to the extreme!" Marco gasped.

«Nobody is gouging anybody's eyes out.» Tobias said calmly, fluttering between the two.  
«Rachel, put the pitchfork back, Marco, stop staring at my girlfriend before I retract my first sentence and—»

"I'm not your girlfriend!" Rachel yelled angrily, slamming the pitchfork into the ground.

"Ouch!" Marco quipped.

«Well...» Tobias said mildly. «Well, I guess as a friend I should warn you Walter's coming because you big-mouths couldn't keep your voices down.»

"Tobias wait— I didn't mean..." Rachel started.

A beam of light suddenly appeared around the corner of the barn and the heavy sound fall of boots came from close by.  
Jake lifted Rachel bodily off the ground and threw her behind a bale of hay before making a mad scramble for an empty horse stall.

"Jake you threw Rachel on top of me!" Marco yelped. "Wait... why am I complaining?"

Rachel elbowed him hard in the stomach—'Ow' Marco squeaked— and rolled onto the ground.

Walter stomped into view, looking extremely tired and grumpy.

"Cassie? Why are you making all this noise?" he demanded.

"Noise?" Cassie said nervously. "What noise?"

"What noise—all the banging and crashing and yelling!" Walter snapped.

"Oh, you mean that noise." Cassie said lamely. "Well... I was thinking about what you said earlier and couldn't sleep. So I decided to come out here and think and take care of some of the animals."

"Well could you do it a little quieter?" Walter growled coldly. "Please?" he added in a kinder voice realizing he was tired and was being cold and grouchy.

"Okay daddy. You should go back to sleep, get some rest." Cassie said, giving him a hug.

Walter started off for the house, frowned deeply, his face troubled with confusion, then turned around to face Cassie again. "You were making all that noise thinking?"

"And taking care of the animals?" Cassie smiled weakly.

"And taking care of the animals," Walter repeated in a mutter to himself. "Huh, I'm too tired to care that this makes no sense. Just keep it down, okay?"

Walter patted Cassie on the shoulder then turned to glare angrily at his pickup truck but going to make sure it was locked all the same.

Ax, underneath the pickup, closed his eyes worriedly and squirmed sideways, a few inches away from the muddy boot tips.

«And we... are... clear» Tobias informed them as Walter went back into the house, muttering.

With a groan, Ax pulled himself from underneath the pickup truck, brushed himself off and began talking in a deep voice. «Previously in This Meeting...»  
«Is this supposed to be some kind of joke Marco?» Ax added in a high voice.  
«Then where the hell is she?» he continued, but in a darker tone.

"Wha— Ax I'm almost afraid to ask but what are you doing?" Marco stared.

"He's doing a flashback dumbbell," Rachel snapped at him. "Ax, we remember what was said okay? We don't need you to go over it again."

«Of course,» Ax said graciously. «Prince Jake?»

"Okay," Jake said quietly. "The Yeerk pools going to be virtually empty, right? No Visser 3 with some hellish, a smaller amount of Hork-Bajir than usually..."

"You're hoping Tom's down there aren't you?" Cassie said softly. "So that you can save him."

Jake swore and turned away.

"I knew it!" Rachel said. "You're not thinking straight because family's involved! Otherwise you'd have seen that my idea was obviously the best!"

«Rachel!» Tobias sighed wearily. « Let's put it to a vote. If—if that's what Jake wants to do.» he added so as not to seem like he was giving orders.

"Yeah, a vote," Jake muttered, running a hand through his hair. "And Ax?"

«Yes, Prince Jake?» Ax questioned.

"You're voting, whether you want to or not. All for going down to the Yeerk Pool?"

Jake raised his own hand, followed by Cassie.

"Shit," he snarled, looking around for the hands that weren't there. "Marco I thought you had all these complaints about raiding the Yeerks meeting?"

"Changed my mind. Rachel's got a good point, this is a huge chance to strike a blow to the Yeerks and we may never get this opportunity again." Marco shrugged.

"Exactly!" Rachel agreed punching him none to lightly on the shoulder. "I knew you had to have some brains up there!"

"What if we all get caught or killed though?" Marco wondered. "I mean, sure we'll take down Visser Three and One with us, at last we'd better had, but if there's no one left to fight the fight, it doesn't matter how badly we hurt the Yeerks."

"Maybe someone stays behind?" Tobias suggested.

"No," Jake shot the idea down immediately. "If we're going to have any chance at this, we all need to go."

"Even Cassie?" Marco said slyly and Cassie glared at him.

"Marco..." Jake warned. "Cassie is coming and if the mission involves eating something she better eat it. No wolf morph either, go polar bear or something."

Cassie looked at the ground in embarrassment, struggling to hold back her tears.

«I believe you humans have something called wills? Perhaps you could leave someone the blue cube in your will, someone who we know is not a controller.» Ax said.

"No good," Marco said. "You have to be dead for your will to be read but if we were dead and disappeared from society instead of having the Chee play us, the Yeerks would put the pieces together and whoever we passed the cube onto wouldn't stand a chance."

Then in a small whisper to Ax, "You'd think a guy who knows more science than all of Earth put together would have though of all that."

«Or more simply and efficiently stated,» Ax said aloud. «Someone previously bestowed with the morphing power must be living to activate it for others.»

"Hey, the will was your dumb idea in the first place," Marco smirked.

"Can everyone please focus here!" Jake snapped as Ax bristled.

«Toby» Tobias said quietly. «We could give her the blue cube.»

"No." Ax, Rachel and Marco said immediately, everyone surprised by the triple reaction.

"Ladies first," Marco bowed ironically and made a large sweep of his arms, pointing at Rachel.

"The Hork-Bajir are morons!" Rachel stated bluntly. "They're privates and corporals, not Generals! You want to trust these guys with the cube? Trust them to handle situations wisely?"

«As wisely as her?» Tobias muttered to Ax who didn't smile, still annoyed with Marco.

"And," Marco added, once Rachel had finished her insulting rant. "Who's to say a Hork-Bajir's going to look out for humans as well as a human would? You know how Toby is, always on the lookout for herself and her Hork-Bajir. Just like she puts her people first, I put my people first."

"I didn't know you had 'people', I thought you only cared about yourself," Rachel sneered.

Jake held up a finger to defuse the verbal war Marco and Rachel were about to dive into.

"Ax?"

«I have already taken blame for giving the humans morphing technology, even though it was my brother who did so. I do not mind taking the fall for Elfangor but if the Hork-Bajir were to get their hands on it? First off, allowing the Hork-Bajir to have morphing technology is simply unthinkable by my species! Worse, what if they lost it to the Yeerks, which I am 95% certain they would. I would be a fool! The biggest dapsen since Seerow himself! I refuse to allow Aximili or the name of my family to become a curse, to become as common a symbol of shame as the name of Seerow was and is today!»

Tobias was ready to defend the Hork-Bajir but Jake spoke before he could.

"Tobias, I know how close you and Hork-Bajir are and that you trust them, respect them and all, but I don't like the idea either. However, it's the best we've got so far so I'll take it as a possibility." Jake said

"How about Jordan!" Cassie said excitedly and Rachel laughed disdainfully.

"No, no, no girl, hear me out!" Cassie insisted determinedly.  
"It'll explain everything that happened tonight Rachel, she'll understand why you did what you did she'll forgive you!"

"Cassie," Jake sighed. "It's nice that you want to fix things between Rachel and Jordan but that's not a good reason for—"

"And," Cassie interrupted triumphantly. "And we know she's not a controller!"

Jake paused, his face forming a frown. "How did you work that out?" he asked calmly.

"My guess," Marco smirked. "Is that she just gets a warm fuzzy feeling that Jordan's not a controller."

"No," Cassie said, angry. "Chapman wouldn't have been trying to get her to join the Sharing if she was a controller already!"

Marco stopped smirking and got an annoyed look on his face.

"Okay, fair enough." Jake nodded. "She's a possibility."

"Whhmmmmph!" Rachel mangled, Ax covering her mouth just before she yelled aloud, possibly waking up Walter again.

"What!" she hissed, once Ax removed his hand. "You can't possibly be considering Jordan!"

"I can and I am," Jake shot back. "I don't know what the hell is with you and your sister but she's a possibility and you'd better deal with it."

"Melissa!" Rachel snapped, pulling a name out of the air.

"Two controller parents." Jake axed the idea.

"Karen?" Rachel barked. "She already knows about us, she's perfect!"

"Although she shouldn't know about us," Marco jabbed at Cassie who blinked hard but otherwise ignored the barb.

There was a short silence as everyone mulled the idea of Karen over.

"I like it," Jake said finally. "Cassie? Get the cube."

Cassie went into the barn, slid over the mini-fridge used to freeze grasshoppers and insects for some of the animals and started digging.

The others hopped in place rubbing their hands together until ten minutes later, she came out with a shoebox, which held the blue cube.

"Meet us at the Chee house when you're done." Jake ordered, handing Tobias the cube.

«Golden Eagle,» Tobias said in disgust, staring at himself. «It's one thing to recognize them as punks, as dangerous enemies, but to actually be one? I should be shot for treason.»

"It's much better than your red-tailed hawk for speed in the nighttime." Cassie said.

«Yeah? Well what about my owl morph?» Tobias countered.

"It'll get tired carrying the cube, the Golden Eagle's stronger," Cassie smiled apologetically.

«What if I crash into wires or trees because I'm not an owl which can see in the night?»

"Tobias..." Jake said tolerantly.

«Alright, alright I'm off» Tobias grumbled and dipping his wing, took off for Karen's mansion, still muttering about Golden Eagles.

"You sound like my dad and his truck you know," Cassie called.

«Hey, at least I'm not, you know, a Bald Eagle» Tobias shot back.


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Animorphs.

* * *

The Animorphs were all slouched in the back seats of Mr. King's Ford Expedition, drinking coffee, Coca-Cola, anything with caffeine in it.

"I've had less hours of sleep these past three days than I can count on one hand," Marco shuddered, gulping down half the can before exploding into a coughing fit. "Not cool."

After Jake had berated Tobias for taking way longer than he said he would, they had immediately started off.  
Everyone was alert, but frayed and frazzled from lack of rest, Rachel the lone exception, jazzy and hyper from a combination of caffeine and 'pre-war time' excitement.

Mr. King was spying on the building where the meeting was being held, so Maria, a cold, moody Chee who the animorphs did not really get along with was driving.  
Some new guy was riding shotgun and he turned, raising a hand in greeting.

"Chuckie, Chuckie Chee," he said pleasantly. "Pleased to meet you guys. I mean, not particularly under these circumstances, you know, with all the looming violence and all." He shuddered. "Any other time it would've been great to meet you—not that it's unpleasant meeting you now it's just that—"

"Shut up," Maria threatened him, her sensors scanning a full three hundred and sixty degrees as she barreled down the road at the cars maximum speed.  
Houses blurred by, squares of light occasionally visible from those more enthusiastic about celebrating New Years.

"No banging trash cans! No screaming, no whiplash!" Rachel mocked Marco.

"Hey!" Marco said. "I may have nudged a trash can or two but I haven't given anyone whiplash!"

"Oh, NO!" Maria yelled suddenly, as headlights, appeared out of nowhere, blinding everyone inside the car.

The man inside the white Chevy Malibu looked completely bewildered and then horrified to find an SUV barreling towards him at well over one hundred miles per hour.

Maria's vision automatically switched to infrared and she saw the red glow of the terrified male, the engines of both car giving off heat.  
The situation, the possibilities, the results, calculations flashing through Maria's mind practically at the speed of light and with instant reaction, she slammed on the gas, yanking the steering wheel to the right as the engine leapt forward to meet the Malibu, yanked the steering wheel hard to the left, sending the SUV into a spin, the humans in the backseat screaming, cursing, only Ax remaining calm and she wrenched the wheel back to the right, the Malibu screaming past so close, so close, sparks cracking angrily as the metals brushed one another, the bald, bespectacled man now visible through the window, mouth opened in a large scream and previously unseen, his four year old daughter sitting directly behind him, screaming, absolutely terrified, shaking and clutching tightly to a big pink unicorn and the SUV started sliding to the left, Maria losing traction and control as the right wheels slowly lifted off the ground.

"Come on…" Maria hissed nervously as she fought to keep the vehicle from flipping over and suddenly the wheels slammed back down to the ground and she slammed the gas, bringing the car into a hard left turn and the SUV spun into a 180, narrowly missing the guardrail and coming to a screeching halt at the side of the road.

Maria shook with relief, laying her head on the steering wheel, clutching it for support.  
The Animorphs fell back in their seats shaking, sticky with cola and wincing from the pain of splashed hot coffee.

"How come I couldn't sense that car?" Maria whispered, panicked, running through self-diagnosis programs. "I put lives at risks, those innocent people almost died! You all almost died!"

"Maria—" Cassie whispered.

"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T I DETECT IT?" Maria yelled, finding nothing wrong, angry at herself, angry at letting the Animorphs see her not in control.

"I didn't know Chee cursed," Jake breathed heavily.  
He was still clinching the back of Ax's carseat, his knuckles white.

"Maria's different," Chuckie offered. "She's—" he trailed off from Maria's cold look.

"I—can't drive anymore," Maria said painfully. "Until I figure out what happened, until I know it's safe again..."

She pulled the keys from the ignition and threw them to Chuckie, who juggled them nervously and dropped them. Maria narrowed her eyes, Chuckie bending down to scrape them off the car floor.

"Nope, can't do," Chuckie said, shaking his head. "I didn't detect the car either Maria, I'm in the same boat as you are. Or same car I guess you would say since we—"

"Alright, Chuckie!" Maria interrupted, snatching back the keys. "Looks like you're on your own Animorphs. Can't say that I'm all that sorry but… whatever."

She flung the keys towards Jake, who knocked Marco's hand aside, and caught them.

"We can't let Marco drive!" Rachel growled. "What if this happens again he'll get us all killed!,"

"I know Rachel but he's the only one who really knows how to drive—if you can call that knowing." Tobias sighed.

"What?" Jake said with a confused frown. "We're not letting—oh." He muttered, as it clicked and handed the keys to Marco.  
"Hell, we'll probably die in some horrific car crash but Marco is the fastest driver. Thanks anyway Maria."

"Hey!" Marco interjected, annoyed with all the comments.

Maria paused, digesting what the Animorphs had just said.  
Her programming forbade her from causing harm to humans and if they let Marco drive, there was a huge possibility that the car would end up flipped over with all its passengers dead. True she wouldn't be directly responsible but the probability of a crash was 90 percent, just slightly over her personal tolerance rate. Blast it.

"Give me the stupid keys," Maria growled, hating the Animorphs more than usual.

The Expedition pulled up to its destination safely, Maria parking with relief.  
It had taken half an hour, half an hour driving at top speed with Marco complaining the whole way that he was very upset with this lack of faith in his driving skills and that he was perfectly capable of getting them where ever in one piece.  
They were on the outskirts of town, nothing else in sight except for the factory they were now taking in from a distance of 500 feet.

"100% Yeerk owned and operated of course," Chuckie whispered.

Maria scanned the building with various sensors including infrared and night vision, combining it with information she received over the Chee-Net, telling the Animorphs the results.

"Basically, you've got guards everywhere, they will be shooting to kill. Electrified fence around the whole building and a force field dome. It takes enormous power to maintain a strong force field of such size, enormous. Lourdes detected snipers up on the roofs of both the factory and buildings a mile or so away from here—if you stay still, let them get sight of you, you'll die before you even knew what hit you. They have bug fighters patrolling the area, dracon dannons capable of stopping a tank hidden all around the building, roof mounted, rotating dracon defense cannons that can blow a bug fighter to shreds. The walls are soaked in pesticides, bug spray is being flooded through the factory it's hanging in heavy clouds. Killer attack dog teams patrol every inch of land, probably inside as well as out."

"Damn hell," Jake breathed when she paused. "How are we supposed to get in!"

"Not my problem," Maria shrugged. "Any of you make it out alive, I'll be waiting in the car down the road."

"Good luck!" a beautiful woman winked, alarming the Animorphs with her sudden appearance.  
Rachel leapt into action, prepared to knock her to the ground before Maria raised a hand to stop her.

"It's just Chuckie," Maria growled. "He enjoys making holograms of young, attractive, human ladies rather than the role he was assigned."

A thousand jokes were on the tip of Marco's tongue, but he manage to refrain himself, instead concentrating on the matter at hand and the sound of Maria lecturing Chuckie faded away as they both headed back to the car.

"We're going to need an army to get in here!" Rachel snarled in frustration and Jake sighed, depressed. The situation was not good if even Rachel wasn't ready to go charging into battle.

"Not even an army could get through this," Tobias said shaking his head. "Fighter Jets would get blown out of the sky, ground troops would be annihilated, tanks destroyed."

"Let it be stated for the official record that I told you so." Marco said unhappily.

In the distance, a dog barked ferociously, making them all jump.

"Maybe we should just call this off Jake?" Cassie suggested timidly.

"No!" Rachel hissed, pounding a fist into her hand. "We already discussed this, it's our best opportunity EVER to dominate, to destroy the Yeerks!"

"Uh, Yeah, not if we can't get inside," Marco said.

"Okay, that's enough!" Jake snapped "We need ideas people not negativity! Ax?"

Ax shrugged, his shoulders rising in falling in prefect synchronization;  
He had practiced for many months to get the motion down and was very pleased with the result. His next challenge was the finger point and nod, something he had seen on TV.

«I honestly do not know Prince Jake.» Ax said quietly. «The Yeerks are obviously very prepared for any direct assaults on their compound. Therefore, I can only suggest that we enter by means of stealth rather than force. I believe that if we could get inside that factory, we might have a chance.»

"Could we burrow under the force field?" Cassie suggested. "Morph mole, dig a tunnel and pop out on the other side?"

«The attack dogs.» Tobias pointed out. He had resumed his hawk form. «They'd smell us before we could finish and the Yeerk's would find out what we were up to.»

"We need to do something unexpected." Marco said suddenly. "Ax, a long time ago, you said the weakest point of a force field is at the top, right? Because the amount of energy needed is cubed with distance."

«Yes.» Ax said, mildly impressed that Marco had retained this bit of information.  
«It is one of the fundamentals taught to Andalites taking Quantum Physics.»

"Okay, good. Now I hope you paid enough attention in class to answer these two questions. First, can you punch holes through a force field if you use something large enough?" Marco questioned.

«Energy is more of a factor than mass but in essence, yes, you could punch a hole through a force field.» Ax explained.

"And the million dollar question. What happens when something hits a force field does it bounce off, disintegrate, what?" Marco asked.

«I thought this was the second question?» Ax said, confused.

"It's just an expression Ax," Jake sighed. "Just answer the question."

«You sound like one of those detectives on TV!» Ax remarked.

"Ax..."

«Yes Prince Jake.» Ax said, and Jake sighed, growling, "_Don't call me Prince_".

«Marco, the answer to your question, which is not really a million dollar question but the second one, is simple. First, I believe you are incorrectly thinking of a force field as a physical object. A force field is made of trillions of simultaneously positive and negative charged quantum particles, which creates a formidable charge that repels everything eclipsing its electric field. Something must posses a massive amount of energy to overcome this force otherwise it will simply stop and assuming it was launched, fall to the ground.»

"So..." Marco said slowly. "What if someone goes bird, flies up maybe a mile or so above the force field and then starts demorphing and remorphing to whale. Would that be big enough to crack it or what?" he finished triumphantly. "The rest of us can zip through as bird or something."

"Brilliant weenie," Rachel sneered. "Except Ax never really explained what happens to the whale."

«Oh, the whale would not die!» Ax laughed. «Again, the force field is just energy, a force, it has no physical manifestation. The whale will overcome this charge and simply disrupt a part of the field.»

Before the Animorphs could let out a collective sigh of relief, Ax added «It is sliding off the force field dome and the drop to the ground, the whale has to worry about.»

"That's like a wussy eighty foot drop." Rachel sneered worriedly.  
"A whale can handle it! Right?"

Everyone turned towards Cassie for confirmation.

"How am I supposed to know!" She scowled. "I heal animals! Not play MythBusters with them."

"Best guess." Jake sighed. "What would happen to the whale?"

"I-I don't know, I guess it would probably be severely injured, but maybe its mass will protect the critical organs long enough that one of us will be able to demorph." Cassie speculated.

"Assuming said whale doesn't get blasted by a dracon Cannon first," Marco muttered.

"Okay." Jake said pacing. "We go straight through the top of the dome. Ax will it work?"

«The strategy is brilliant. The force field is in place as a shield against air and land assaults not as a deterrent against entry, that's what the electric field was for.» Ax said. «The Yeerks will not be expecting this.»

"Good." Jake said, looking at his team "We'll have the surprise, maybe a good twenty or thirty seconds. Go straight for the doors, fight our way inside and take things from there."

"What if we take over one of those Dracon Cannons?" Marco said quietly. "Aim it at the front door and blasts it to smithereens?"

"What the hell, let's go for it." Jake said after a moment's thought. "So… I think our whale will be—"

"Jake!" Cassie interrupted. "You can't just single out someone! What if they die, what if Ax is wrong about the whale not being able to handle the impact? We should do short straw like we always do, it's only fair."

Ax's expression was one of the utmost offended, but Jake waved down his retort and blew out a short angry breath.

"Cassie's right. A short straw becomes our whale, the rest of us go as bird or fly, whatever can fit through the disruption in the field that the whale makes."

«Either bird or fly is fine.» Ax told him. «Assuming the humpback whale is used, the disruption will last for approximately 4.57 of your seconds. Remember that there will not be a whale shaped hole in the force field to fly through but holes, patches that cannot temporarily withstand the strain of tremendous force. We will have to find these holes quickly before the force field re-establishes itself.»

"Damn, this is getting more and more difficult," Jake muttered, thrusting out his fists.

Tobias tugged at a straw with his beak. Long.  
Then one by one, the others all plucked and held it up for everyone to see.

"Me?" Rachel said in outrage, shaking the short blade of grass angrily. "I'm going to have to stay outside while you guys are going into the biggest battle of our lives?"

"That's the way the pacifist sings." Marco sighed angrily, earning him a reproving glare from Cassie. "I can't believe we're going in without Rachel, she's like...the Wartime Queen! We need her in there!"

Jake looked just as mad as Marco. "Is there any way to hold the force field open, like if we hovered in the hole made? Then Rachel could demorph, morph and get in."

Ax held in his laughter, realizing this was not the proper time.  
«No, Prince Jake» he said in a grave tone. «But Rachel, I assure you I will deactivate the force field as soon as possible.»

Rachel didn't answer—"I'll bet she's crying!" Marco whispered—but she was actually morphing bald eagle, silently preparing for her drop down on the force field.

«Let's do it wussies!» Rachel yelled, but it didn't have the same enthusiasm to it.  
«Slaughter some Yeerks for me, alright?»

«Hey, Ax?» Tobias asked. «Would a bat be able to see the disruption, you know, by echolocation?»

«Wonderful idea Tobias!» Ax said, immediately reversing his harrier morph, the others doing the same. «I don't know why I didn't think of it myself!»

Fifteen minutes passed as they watched Rachel struggle as high as possible in the dead night air, pausing for a short while when a bug fighter patrol passed through the area.

«Bombs away!» Marco called, as she begin demorphing, plummeting out of the sky.

«Everyone is at least ten feet away from her impact point?» Jake yelled and despite their assurances, made sure of the fact himself, not wanting anyone to get crushed.

«Oh my god, we never thought to check... wouldn't that be awful if the Chee only thought there was a force field but there really wasn't?» Cassie said.

«Shut up.» Rachel growled and a few seconds later her whale body jerked to a halt as it hit the force field, then started sliding off to the left along the dome.

«Move, move, move!» Jake yelled, and the five bats shot forward, emitting high pitched squeals, finding all the holes that the massive whale had caused to open up.

Red lights flashed below and a klaxon alarm wailed.

"I'm detecting a 17.5% drop in force field levels," a man yelled.

"Which section you moron? Send the bug fighters to scan the air, tell the ground troops to fire near the area." A girl snarled.

«Taylor...» Tobias hissed, as he swooped through a hole.

There was a sickeningly loud thud as Rachel smashed into the ground, groaning from the impact, but already starting to demorph.  
Gun fire and dracon breams riddled the area near the top of the dome, but the animorphs were long gone, heading towards one of the dracon cannons.

«Good work Rachel, we are in.» Jake said, already demorphing, his bat half hitting, half rolling across the ground. «Cassie, remember, Polar Bear morph.»

«I know, I know.» Cassie huffed.

"The force field's been breached!" A man yelled in panic. "See how two of the Dracon beams went beyond the zone, the field's been breached!"

"The Andalite bandits are inside morons!" Taylor screeched. "Security Alpha-V squads one through twenty-five, your on Orange Alert status. Security Gamma-E, all squads on red alert, prepare for immediate engagement with the Andalite bandits! Security Gamma-G... release the hunter Taxxons and dogs."

"Dogs and Taxxon are coming." Jake swore, trying to hurry along his tiger morph. "Ax, any idea what all this Gamma Letter stuff is?"

«My guess is that they respond to the different levels and duties of the Yeerk security forces. V for example designates Visser security and perhaps G is ground.» Ax replied, already racing towards the first dracon Cannon.

"Oh crap!" one of the guards yelled seeing the blue menace bear down on him.  
Before he could fire, Ax whipped his tail blade across his neck and he fell to the ground.  
He whipped it again and again, slaughtering the guards before they could raise their machine guns.  
"Andalite bandits sighted! Dracon cannon Section A—" a guard crouched on the opposite side of the dracon cannon managed to yell before a gorilla fist clobbered her in the face.

"Which section, which section?" Taylor shrieked enraged. "All dracon canon A sections report!"

«Ax I've got this! Everyone, get ready to go through!» Marco yelled, his Gorilla lumbering forward and with a grunt spinning the dracon cannon towards the front entrance, sounds of the A sections hurriedly sounding off.

«You were supposed to use the control panel!» Ax said, accusingly, racing towards the entrance with the others.

«Yeah right,» Marco snorted and fired—a thick, intense beam blasted from the cannon, burning anyone in its path, reducing the factory's entrance into a mess of brick, plaster and metal rubble.

«Go, go go!» Jake bellowed and a tiger, Polar Bear and two Andalites tore through the opening, smashing and leaping past the littering of debris and bodies.

"Security Gamma-E one report!" A man ordered frantically. "Security Gamma-E one report."

«I'm guessing Gamma-E one was guarding the front entrance.» Marco smirked and fired again before throwing himself to the side of the dracon cannon.  
Barely two seconds later, fifty bullets and dracon beams ripped through the spot where he had just been and then the second shot from the dracon cannon blew half of the front of the building down, bricks and metal raining down to block the entrance.

«Marco!» Jake yelled, the gorilla rolling across the ground to avoid bursts of gunfire.  
«He's trapped out there!»

«Don't worry about me!» Marco panted. «That will keep them from following you I'll find another way in!»

«Damn it Marco!» Jake growled angrily. «Tobias, on your left!»

Outside the factory, a demonic looking German Shepherd burst towards Marco, barking ferociously followed by a short lady with a Dracon Beam and Marco leapt aside, narrowly dodging her shot.

«Rock-a-bye doggie in the headtop» Marco sang, knocking the dog unconscious with a swift uppercut. «When the Gorilla comes, he'll knock you out.»

The lady shot Marco in the arm and he grunted in pain before backhanding her several yards across the battlefield. She lay their, groaning and Marco took off across the grounds, gun fire, yelling and barking erupting in his wake.

Meanwhile, Jake was surging his crew through the factory, Ax and Tobias whipping their Andalite tails left and right magnificently, Cassie's polar bear an explosion of danger and power and Jake's tiger, fierce and tremendous as always. They were holding up well from both the Yeerks and the heavy fog of bug spray that clung to the air all around them and the Yeerk forces were caught off guard by their swift assault.

«Ax, best guess, where is this meeting—oh shit...» Jake trailed off as ten of the largest Hork-Bajir ever seen poured through a door, eight, possibly nine foot monsters with rippling muscles and blades seemingly running up and down the entire length of their arms, bellowing and slashing the air violently.

«What are we going to do?» Cassie asked Jake worriedly. «It's going to take a miracle to win this battle!»

«No it's not!» Jake snapped. «Cassie, cover our rear. Ax, Tobias get ready.»

"GRASH NASH!" the Hork-Bajir roared and threw themselves eagerly into battle, three on each Andalite, two each on Jake and Cassie.

Within minutes, the Animorphs were bleeding everywhere, Ax managing to drop one of the monsters but the rest of them looked just as dangerous as ever.

Cassie roared and hurled her entire body at one of her Hork-Bajir, crushing him into the floor. She got up, the Hork-Bajir winded, then lunged for his chest, getting slashed again and again by his arm blades but finally knocking them aside and plunging, ripping, the Hork-Bajir's eyes dimming as he faded into nothingness.

«Cassie, behind you!» Tobias yelled and Cassie desperately threw up an arm, the other Hork-Bajir's arm blades getting straight through it and digging deep into her shoulder..

"ROOOAARRRRR!" The polar bear and Cassie both screamed in rage, pain and agony and using her better paw, smashed it into her assailant, who staggered from the blow, Cassie's second, then third swing knocking him unconscious.

Cassie paused, absolutely awed by the power of her new morph when a flash of blades crossed the corner of her vision.

«Jake!» Cassie cried. «Jake, there are more Hork-Bajir coming, about three or four! They're coming down the corridor towards this room!»

«Handle them.» Jake said wearily, snapping at a Hork-Bajir leg, jerking backwards before being slashed. «You've got to handle them, okay?»

«Ax!» Tobias yelled. «Get that force field and electric fence down! It's our only hope.»

«That—may be a little difficult.» Ax gasped desperately.  
His two Hork-Bajir were slowly forcing him backwards into a corner.

Tobias leapt backwards onto a conveyor belt, taking his three attackers completely by surprise then took a running leap towards Ax.

"GRAK!" One of the Hork-Bajir bellowed a warning and just on time, his friend flinched away from Tobias' blur of a tail, turning what would have been certain death into a serious injury.

«Go!» Tobias urged, forcing a path past the two Hork-Bajir.

«Tobias my friend, my shorm!» Ax protested. «You cannot possibly fight five of these anomalies alone! Not even a highly trained Andalite War Prince could!»

«I've got to try to hold them off! Go, we may be able to save the others!» Tobias yelled.

Ax hesitated, then raced off into the adjoining room, slowing only to deliver a fatal blow to one of the Hork-Bajir Jake was fighting.

Cassie was fighting desperately against three Hork-Bajir, who were thankfully, their normal seven foot size. She had already taken down one of them and though the others were cut and slashed numerously, her battle skills were nowhere near Rachel's and the remaining Hork-Bajir were in the process of beating her unconscious.

A door crashed open and a gray and red specked ball of fur rolled through the air, leaping on one of the Hork-Bajir's shoulders.

«I think Tobias getting bullied is enough,» Marco cracked, and smashed his fist down on the Hork-Bajir's head.  
The Hork-Bajir fell to the ground, caught completely by surprise.

«Oh Marco!» Cassie said in relief, the tables suddenly turned on her enemies as together they took down another one of the yeerks. «Thank you!»

«Don't thank me just yet, Donkey Kong bought company.» Marco warned, and Security Delta-G one, two and three rounded the corridor from behind, a dozen angry and scared looking controllers yanking out guns and squeezing the triggers, spitting bullets everywhere like their lives depended on it—which they probably did.

Cassie shoved Marco out of harm's way, crying in pain as the bullets ripped through her but shielding him from the worst of it.  
The last Hork-Bajir staggered, full of bullets from her own people and fell to the ground, then with an extreme effort pushed herself back to her knees, gasping from pain.

"FRAK GRANAK!" she roared and the controllers hesitated, desperately desiring to kill the Andalite Bandits but also not wanting to shoot their own soldier.  
In the end, then lowered their guns and charged down the corridor.

Cassie staggered deeper into the factory room, Marco lumbering after.  
Jake still fought the monster Hork-Bajir, neither showing signs of giving in, a stalemate.  
Tobias was leaping from conveyor belt to conveyor belt which had, at first, confused the Yeerks but the five Hork-Bajir had smartened up and instead of chasing him endlessly, they had surrounded him in a circle and were quickly closing in.

«Cassie help Jake then both of you help Tobias!» Marco yelled.  
«Me and my gorilla buddy are going to try and stop these SWAT team wannabes.»

«My gorilla buddy and I. You can't fight them alone, there's too many of them!» Cassie said worriedly.

«What are you worrying about grammar for? Besides, who said anything about fighting?» Marco asked. «I almost hate to enforce this idea in your head, but fighting's not always the answer.»

With a grunt he ripped a large piece of machinery from the floor and hurled it towards the entrance where three of the faster controller were about to come through.

One of them dove under the piece of machinery, rolling to his feet and leaping upright, grinning with pleasure at his ultra cool move while the second one jumped an impossibly high distance in the air, flying over the top of the machinery and landing in a crouch, one hand on the ground the other steadying a machine gun held in the air.

The final controller was not so lucky and wailed as the machinery crashed straight into him, pinning him to the floor and crushing nearly every bone his body possessed.

«Wha—?» Marco said in disbelief, staring at the two controllers who had made it through. «So we're secret agent controllers now or something?»

He threw himself to the side as the lady started firing, bullets ricocheting off the remaining machinery scattered about the room.

«Hang in there Tobias!» Jake yelled, leaping into the fray of five Hork-Bajir.

Tobias knocked a Hork-Bajir's blade away with his tail, spinning around to block another and another before one sliced a deep gash into his back and he staggered— another Hork-Bajir prepared to deliver a slash across the face but a polar bear slammed into him first, knocking him backwards and out of the fight.

«Crap!» Marco yelled partly because he had just gotten shot in the arm three times by the man but also because a controller's head had appeared over the machinery he had hurled in front of the entrance way as a barricade—the yeerks were climbing over.

«Cassie!» Jake yelled and distracted, Marco glanced to the side and saw a polar bear soar across the room and smash into the wall.

There were three Hork-Bajir remaining and they roared triumphantly, turning their attention on Jake and Tobias, both who were barely hanging onto consciousness.

Marco lunged at the man, thankful for his tough Gorilla body as more bullets ripped into his left arm. He grabbed the controller by his throat, punching him so viciously in the head he thought he heard a cracking noise and the man crumbled to the ground.

The lady snarled and her machine gun blazed to life—Marco ripped the machine gun from the fallen man's hands. Running, rolling, diving behind another piece of machinery for cover.

Panting, he stared down at his stomach, three holes all in a line, oozing blood.  
Ignoring the pain, he leapt out from behind the machinery, returning fire, the lady reacting instantly and firing back.

A split second later the firing stopped and the lady's eyes grew colder and narrow as she stumbled backwards, her weapon clattering to the ground.

"Filthy Andalite," she hissed and she fell backwards, lifeless, to the cold, tiled floor.

«Filthy Yeerk» Marco retorted falling weakly to his knees. «Jake, Tobias I've got to demorph and remorph, I'll be with you as soon as possible okay?»

Marco unloaded the clip, spewing bullets along the top of the machine blocking the door, keeping the Yeerks at bay.

«I don't know if I can last that long.» Tobias said doubtfully.

Jake's tiger was down, breathing shallowly and slumped over a pile of other bodies  
Tobias was trying to stave off the three huge Hork-Bajir but it was a losing battle.

"ANDALITE BANDITS!" A voice roared and Marco, half-human, half-gorilla, looked around frantically for the source.

There was the sound of gunfire that lasted for a second, then one of the factory walls exploded and an enraged grizzly bear barreled through the wreckage, followed by a dozen free Hork-Bajir and their leader, a wise, 'seer' Hork-Bajir, Toby.

"Rachel!" Toby said annoyed. "I told you I would blast the wall down with my Dracon Beam."

«Yeah, well...» Rachel shrugged, wasting no time storming towards Tobias' attackers.

"We help Tobias!" Jara Hamee bellowed fiercely, engaging with one of the monstrous Hork-Bajir.

"Tobias good!" Jara's wife, Ket Halpak, added knowledgeably, hurrying to his aid.

With the sudden addition of Rachel and friendly Hork-Bajir allies, the battle was swift and in less than a minute, the monstrous Hork-Bajir had been dispatched.

«So that's what took you so long.» Marco commented, once again a healthy gorilla.  
«Flying to the free Hork-Bajir colony. Well I can't say that I'm upset about it Tobias.»

"You're welcome." Toby remarked.

«Ax is still alive, he's saying something in private thought speech! He...he got the force field open, right, right.» Tobias said, currently in hawk form and quickly racing back to Andalite. «He's saying he's two rooms away no one room and hang on...»

«Of course I got the force field open!» Ax beamed, galloping into the room.  
«I promised Rachel I would and an Andalite always keeps his promise!»

He brought himself to an abrupt halt, staring at the line of Hork-Bajir meandering around.  
«Ah. Toby. I see Tobias has asked you to come along. How did you get here?»

"Hello to you too Aximili." Toby said, ignoring his question.  
"Cover this opening and shoot anyone who tries to come through here." she ordered three of her people, who nodded and positioned themselves in front of the door.

"Turn the other way around." Toby sighed. "You need to be able to see who's coming."

The Hork-Bajir grumbled and turned around.  
Marco bent down and lifted Jake off the ground with a groan.

"Jeez, have you been eating gobs of fat instead of your kitty chow?" he panted.  
"Let's go buffalo, the chances of gate crashing the Yeerk's big New Year's bash is better than ever!"

Two more of Toby's Hork-Bajir lifted Cassie off the ground and they charged through the door at the opposite end of the room, Tobias and Rachel taking the lead.

«Nice!» Rachel said, impressed as they crossed the threshold.

The entire room was riddled with the damage of an intense battle.  
Scorch marks smothered every available surface, long deep gashes hugged the walls and machinery. Humans and Hork-Bajir bodies littered the ground, some still moaning feebly.

«How did you survive this!?» Tobias said in shock, staring around.  
«I mean, I'm glad you survived of course» he added quickly. «But... how?»

«I had no choice, I had to.» Ax said simply. «I had to get that force field down or it was all over.»

«Way to go Ax!» Rachel enthused, slapping him heartily on the shoulder with her grizzly bear paw. «You totally ruled, you kicked Yeerk butt! Awesome wartime!»

«If we're finished being a maniacal groupie? We need to move it along.» Marco said.

«I am not a groupie!» Rachel growled at him and stomped off into the next room despite everyone calling for her to slow down.

«Empty» Toby said, looking around, worried. «The Yeerks are up to something.»

«No kidding Sherlock.» Marco quipped as he lowered the awakening Jake to the ground.  
«Hey buddy, you need to remorph.»

«Toby?» Jake blinked. «What are you doing here?»

"Sometimes I ask myself the same thing," Toby muttered.

«After I disabled the force field and electrified fence, I took the liberty of accessing, analyzing and committing to memory a map of this building. There are eight areas we'd have to overcome before we would even reach the outer destination of our goal, the meeting.» Ax informed everyone.

«Okay...» Marco said slowly. «Whatever, let's just keep moving.»

The next room was completely empty as well and an incredible feeling of unease was beginning to spread throughout the group—suddenly a huge blast exploded in the distance and the sound of rapid gun and dracon fire flooded the air.

"My people at the door," Toby said slowly, then her eyes widened.  
"The rooms are empty because they dropped back to stall for time!  
Other yeerks are going to come up from behind and we'll be sandwiched in!"

«Shit!» Jake swore, once again a completely wholesome and healthy, if not extremely foul mouthed tiger.

«So? So what?» Rachel yelled, thinking fast. «We—we make a charge for the meeting doors!»

«Have you LOST your damn mind!» Jake yelled. «We'll be slaughtered!»

«No we won't! Let's do it!» Rachel cried, ignoring Jake and charging into the next room.

«No you did not just obey my orders!» Jake bellowed over the sounds of battle that had erupted as soon as Rachel went crashing through the metal door.

Tobias, Marco and Hork-Bajir were already dashing through to help but Ax hesitated at the door, awaiting permission—with a growl, Jake jerked his tiger's head 'yes' and they both bounded into pandemonium.

A frothing mass of Hork-Bajir slashed blades at one another, Toby and her people forcefully ramming a clear path to the opposite side of the room.  
Rachel was already hurling herself at the other metal door and with a huge crack she crashed through into the next room.

"Security Gamma-F, security Gamma-F where the bloody hell are you?" A controller screamed into his walkie talkie, firing away with a gun in the other hand.

Ax swung his tail viciously at he raced through the next door, sending the walkie talkie and the man crashing to the floor.

«Come on! Come on!» Marco yelled from the doorway and the two Hork-Bajir still holding the giant polar bear dashed through the entrance.

Bullets ricocheted crazily off the walls and the scorching heat of dracon beams flooded the air as the Yeerks behind them caught up.

Marco's gorilla staggered in front of the door and let loose with the machine gun, temporarily  
forcing the controllers to take cover.

«Wartime!» Rachel roared her battle cry, barreling for the third entrance, crashing through Hork-Bajir, swatting humans aside like bowling pins.

"GRASH!" A Hork-Bajir cried with concern, as he took a big shot to the chest and staggered, the Polar bear slipping from his hands.

"Hamak!" Jara-Hamee bellowed in anguish.

«Arrrghh!» Marco bellowed as dracon beams and gun fire tore into his arm, forcing him to drop back. «Jara Hamee, keep moving!»

Toby lunged forward to grab the Polar Bear's feet, taking the place of the fallen Hamak.

"Father, come on!" she yelled, hurriedly charging through to the next room with Cassie and her partner.

Click. Click...click click click click.

«Oh, Fuck!» Jake yelled. «Take cover, take cover!»

Yeerks and Animorphs alike immediately reached an unspoken truce to pause fighting and throw themselves out of harms way—Toby half shoved the polar bear and her partner back into the prior room, Ax and Tobias leaping directly behind her; with a burst of adrenaline, Rachel's grizzly body smashed through another door and she and Jake stumbled through, knocking controllers aside and then with a tremendous roar of thunder the plasma bomb exploded.  
A brilliant flash of fire billowed outwards like a shockwave, searing heat and energy vaporizing all those unlucky enough to not get out of the way on time.

"Who the freaking hell used a plasma bomb!" an apoplectic Taylor squealed over a walkie talkie as everyone scrambled back to their feet and into battle.  
"You were ordered no Plasma Bombs! If you don't die fighting I'll kill you myself you little insolent fool!"

«Got him!» Rachel snarled, making true on Taylor's first threat and fatally hurling the plasma bomb offender into a piece of steel machinery.  
«Keep going Rachel you are nearly there!» Ax cried, bounding ahead at full speed stumbling slightly when a Hork-Bajir slashed at his leg.

«Told you it would work!» Rachel smirked at Jake and bashed through the second to last door, into a room of dozens of huge, monstrous Hork-Bajir wearing various shades of bands around their left upper arms.

Elite Hork-Bajir, personal guards given to Yeerks of the highest ranks.  
Visser One's gold bands and Visser Three's red bands were the most numerous with a dozen each. Seven blue and green banded Hork-Bajir stood bristling in growling, while half a dozen black, orange and purple banded ones sharpened their elbow blades suggestively.

Their presence alone was so amazingly domineering that they almost didn't notice the fifty or so humans wearing dark suits and sun glasses, already reaching to draw their guns.

«Was this part of your plan genius?» Jake snarled, bursting inside the room and instantly freezing.

Rachel seethed with rage, running through all the possible options, knowing there was only one.

«WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!» she bellowed and charged for the door beyond which the meeting was being held.

The Yeerks were so surprised at the sheer stupidity and insanity of this action that they momentarily forgot to act and simply stared as Rachel barreled towards the door at full speed, then with yells and growls the Hork-Bajir charged towards her and the humans whipped their guns at her head, swore as the surging Hork-Bajir encircled her, cutting her out of their sight.

Ten feet away from the door and the first blade slashed at Rachel then the second the third...sixth...tenth.

Bleeding badly and roaring with the pain she lowered her shoulder and hurled her entire weight at the door and it exploded off its hinges like a cannon.  
Various people and aliens yelling and pointing, a long table... screens.

Rachel had blood smeared, blurry sight for only one thing and with one last burst of tremendous speed and effort she clawed, scrambled and threw herself over the table sending chairs and their owners scattering, knocking a human to the ground and wrapping long, sharp, grizzly claws around her neck.

"Nobody move!" Visser One snapped as Rachel let loose a gut wrenching roar.


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Animorphs.

* * *

The Animorphs, including a now conscious Cassie, were aligned in a single row on the cold black marble, standing wearily, yet strong and alert. On the other end of the room stood the highest ranking Yeerks of the Milkyway, some, the highest of the entire Yeerk empire.  
Dozens of fancily dressed humans with crossed arms, Visser Three in his mighty Andalite form looking absolutely furious, three hulking, nine foot high Hork-Bajir of unknown rank, an alien who Ax privately and laughingly told them was a Skrit-Na and two Galaards who looked like Andalites but were blazingly faster and lacked the dangerous curved blade at the end of the tail that Andalites were made of.

A humongous screen nearly spanning the entire upper half of one wall was black, gleaming white swirls forming what was apparently the Yeerk Empire's logo—«Yes.» Ax told them—and the slogan, "Our World is Not Enough".  
On the two walls adjacent, were thirteen smaller screens, each showing the angry face of a member from the Council of Thirteen.

The long glass table which was slightly blood smeared and elegant black chairs, partly disarrayed, some even knocked on their backs, lay abandoned in the middle of the floor.

The scene could've almost been a board meeting of a corporation if it weren't for the fact that there were Yeerks with way too many weapons drawn who would've been blowing the Animorphs to hell and back if not for the tiny problem that Rachel still had her claws wrapped around Visser One's neck.

«Council members, I fail to see the problem.» Visser Three said coldly. «One Yeerk for the Animorph bandits and apparently, the rebel Hork-Bajir colony as well. Admittedly a high ranking Yeerk but only a single Yeerk nonetheless.»

"Shut up you brain-dead, blue-furred baboon!" Visser One hissed, despite a violent Grizzly bear breathing inches from her face.

«Perhaps it is destiny, Visser One. Your rank is Visser One. Only one Yeerk will die. It's the first day of the first month on this disgraceful planet—»

"Enough Visser," Councilor Five demanded and Visser Three fell silent. "Let us reminiscence that it was you Visser, being in charge of Earth, who was given responsibility for this meeting's obscurity and security. Needless to say, you have failed."

Visser Three's bowed humbly and backed away but his stalk eyes narrowed in a way that meant quite a few people who he had left in charge of the security detailing were going to suffer and die for this insufferable indignity he was enduring in front of the council.

"So Andalite Bandits," Councilor Six snarled, spitting out the word 'Andalite'.  
"You've found out about our meeting and you've gotten pass our so-called security."

Visser Three's eyes narrowed further at this crack and he mentally sentenced additional heads be chopped off their owners.

"Obviously, you did not come this far to exchange pleasantries." The Councilor continued. "What do you want?"

«Peace.» Cassie said quietly.

«Shut up Cassie!» Jake snapped privately as Yeerks began laughing.

"The Andalites ask for peace. Perhaps they are beginning to humble, to finally see the truth that they can not stop the mighty Yeerk Empire!" Councilor Six roared.

«SHUT UP!» Ax exploded, slamming his tail against the floor and all the boisterous jeering stopped immediately.

Dozens of twitchy alien fingers twitched and the Animorphs tensed even further but no shots were fired.

«Filthy Yeerks, little sons of Seerow Dapsens, we Andalites will not rest until we have annihilated each and every one of your slimy disgusting bodies» Ax snarled.

«STAY!» Visser One snapped sharply and the several who had started towards Ax in response to his insults hesitated and then dropped back into their ranks.

«Ax calm down right now.» Jake ordered. «Calm down.»

His tiger took an assertive step forward.  
«Listen up you Yeerks.» Jake snapped. «This meeting is over. All of you are going to drop your weapons... I SAID DROP YOUR DAMN WEAPONS .»

"You think just because you have one of our Vissers hostage, you can run the show, so to speak." Councilor Two snapped. "Council, I think Visser Five is right. One life, possibly more if the Andalites are quick enough, for the Bandits and the Hork-Bajir Colony."

Visser Three jerked stiffly, not missing the change in his ranking.

«Well this isn't looking too good.» Tobias commented dryly. «Any ideas anyone?»

"What about the blue cube?" Visser One said calmly. "If we kill them, we lose the cube."

"A mere setback I think." Councilor Eight said abruptly and the Yeerks inside the room started shifting, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the upcoming execution of the Animorphs. "Visser One it—"

«I have a bomb!» Marco yelled, thrusting his Gorilla fist in the air and almost every gun in the area was suddenly and disconcertingly pointed at him.

"You'd be killing yourselves too!" An extremely large Hork-Bajir growled, stepping forward. "We'd still be able to take over Earth especially with you filthy Andalites out of the way."

«You are operating under the assuredly false assumption that we have committed a fatally large percentage of our military personnel to this battleground.» Marco snarled. «Although save for a low percentage of survivors, the continued existence of everyone within this area will cease. You will have no commanders and yet we maintain control of our reserves.»

«That is not how Andalites speak!» Ax protested.

"He's bluffing," Visser One said immediately. "Go on and throw the bomb."

«NO!» the now Visser Five bellowed. «You ignorant imbecile, how do you know he's bluffing?»

Marco opened his fist slowly revealing one of the small, spherical, steel Plasma Bombs from earlier sitting atop his palm.

"Don't you dare." Visser One said icily and the man she had caught from the corner of her eye jumped, then slowly uncocked the hammer of his gun.

«You really do have a bomb!» Jake breathed, over the tense, panicked buzz rising in the room, a wave of shock passing collectively through the Yeerks and Animorphs.

«Do it. Everyone else, we're closer to the door then the Yeerks, try to get out as soon as the bomb hits the ground, try to live and continue the fight. Anyone who doesn't make it... well, see you in hell.»

The council members discussion stopped abruptly as Marco's Gorilla raised his fist and hurled the bomb to the ground.

Click...Click...Click...click...click

«NOOO! » Visser Five bellowed in anguish. «KILL THEM! KILL THEM!»

Toby shoved her brother Bek through the opening, the boom of fifty something weapons being fired simultaneously ringing through the air.  
Bek groaned and shuddered to a complete halt just before the entrance.

"Force field!" Toby groaned. "There's no way out!"

«What the hell?» Jake said as the bullets moved towards them slower, slower, stopping.

Angered and bewildered controllers fingered their triggers repeatedly but nothing came out except a clicking sound.

Rachel was screaming and bellowing in rage as she tried to kill Visser One, her paws locked into place by some external force.

**ELLIMIST!** A voice rumbled, a deep bass voice that shook terror deep into the bones of everyone who heard it. It was an angry voice, infuriated, and at the same time—Cassie frowned bewildered— sounded slightly worried.

"What is going on!" Councilor Thirteen bellowed. "Kill them, kill them!"  
He was feeling confused and scared—Councilor Thirteen did not like being confused or scared.

A low roaring sound filled the air, like water being sucked down a drain.  
Electric blue tendrils of fog appeared from nothingness, swirling gracefully around the room, swooping into the glowing blue outline of a tall, old, Chinese man.

**_Crayak_** The old man boomed, his voice not as deep but just as powerful._** You have broken the rules.**_

**ME?** Crayak yelled and a snap of thunder cracked the air, making everyone jump.  
The temperature in the room rose abruptly becoming uncomfortably warm and just as quickly, unbearably hot. Absolute darkness descended upon them and then the raging fire of a bright, burning red eye appeared, danger and death radiating from the pupil.

**WHO LET THE ANIMORPHS GET THIS FAR? YOU DID EL-**

«Ha!» Visser Five interrupted angrily. «I knew it wasn't my fault! The Andalite bandits obviously had assistance from some—»

Visser Five's voice abruptly halted as he was jerked into the air by some strong invisible force, his Andalite hooves kicking desperately to touch ground.

**NEVER **The word was hissed quietly, yet, fear froze the hearts of everyone present.

**INTERRUPT ME!** The voice finished with a deep roar—Visser Five went soaring the length of the room in absolute darkness, careeming into the large company screen which shattered into a million pieces and the room lit up with hot red and blue sparks dancing from the screen's circuitry.

Visser One laughed quietly to herself as Visser Five flopped to the floor, making feeble groaning noises and struggling to stand.

«Okay, what's going on?» Tobias asked.

"I think a more important question is who are you?" Councilor Eight asked quietly.

The blue outline of the Chinese man stepped forward and spread his arms wide.  
**_I am E—_**

The red eye swooped in front of him, cutting him off.  
**FEAR ME MERE MORTALS. I AM CRAYAK, MASTER OF THE CHAOTIC REALMS OF SPACE AND TIME.**

_**As I was saying—**_The outlined Chinese Man paused to glare at the Big Red Eye before continuing—_**I am Toomlin, more popularly known as Ellimist. I also have the power to craft and twist the strings of space fabric and time as I see fit but I do not interfere in other species affairs.**_

Jake sneered at this last part and a thought crossed his mind but he thought better about saying it.

_**Except**_— Ellimist continued. **_Except when the natural order of the Universe is threatened as it is now._**

"Threatened?" Toby asked.

A slavering, hunchbacked creature bounded into view, hopping from foot to foot like a court jester walking on fire.  
The Yeerks flinched backwards in disgust but the Animorphs, having seen him before, managed to disguise their disgust as a shudder.

_Yes threatened!_ The creature said in a nasal, whiny, droning tone.

**SHUT UP DRODE** Crayak hissed.

_Maybe I don't wish to shut up!_ Drode snarled.

A controller, thinking Crayak was distracted, pulled his gun trigger hopefully but there was nothing but an empty clicking sound.  
Crayak chose to ignore it and turned towards Drode instead.

**I BEG YOUR MINISCULE PARDON?**

The plasma bomb in the middle of the floor exploded without warning and the room erupted into yells, an enormous fireball billowing and writhing, a shockwave of green thundering towards them and then it all froze in midair, the heavy musk of heat smothering, streams of bright green light making them squint and shade their eyes.

«What's going on!» Cassie cried.

"Bek scared" the small Hork-Bajir said quietly.

"I told you not to come." Toby muttered, taking his hand.

Ellimist's glowing blue outline shuddered violently and then imploded, folding up into itself and winking out of sight. Crayak's burning red eye turned upon them, hateful and angry, uttering one single word before it faded out of sight—**WAIT**

The room transcended to absolute silence and then—

«What the hell!» Jake bellowed as Cassie's polar bear body began shifting into her human form. «Stop demorphing!»

«I..I can't control it!» Cassie cried in horror, white fur melting away, human skin starting to appear.

Marco grabbed Cassie and hurled her through the door in an attempt to keep her identity secret, but she smashed into the force field and growled at the pain.

«Guys, I'm beginning to demorph too!» Tobias said in alarm.

«We all are» Marco said angrily. «What deal did Crayak and Ellimist strike up now?»

"Stop morphing!" a Councilor bellowed.

Several Yeerk attempted to fire their guns again but the rest watched curiously as the Animorphs finished involuntarily demorphing back into—

"HUMANS!" Most of the council members barked in surprise, the Yeerk forces in the meeting room chiming in as well.

"Hi." Marco said after an infinitely long moment. "Pleased to meet you too."

"Visser Ten, do you mean to tell me that for the past two years progress has been continuously inhibited due to a bunch of human children!" Councilor Eight snarled.

Visser One laughed with amusement at this additional dropping of rank.  
"My, my, dear Visser, how low can you go?"

«Shut up, shut up!» Visser Ten sulked. «Council members, I shall exterminate these pitiful humans immediately!»

Hearing these words, Toby and her Hork-Bajir moved protectively in front of the Animorphs, followed by Aximili.

With a snap of his fingers, a dozen Hork-Bajir lined up behind Visser Ten and he swaggered towards the Animorphs.

"Take another step and she dies!" Rachel snarled, indicating Visser One.

"You're not a grizzly bear anymore Rachel!" Visser One sneered, assuming a defensive position and Rachel paused, a puzzled expression on her face.

"How did you know my name?" Rachel demanded.

«Yes, how did she know her name?» Visser Ten said triumphantly. «Perhaps she has been in cahoots with these Andalite Bandits—»

"You mean Animorphs, sir." some fool foolishly corrected him.

Visser Ten glared at him and curled his tail threateningly.  
«Consider yourself fortunate the Council is watching.» he snarled in private thought speak.

"For your information Visser Ten, this host body amazingly happens to be the mother of that boy," Visser One spat, and pointed to Marco.

«The host's son? Councilors, surely this raises suspicion! Perhaps Visser One is weak and her host convinced her to defect. It has happened before after all.»

"Visser Ten, SILENCE!" Councilor Four warned. "Please continue Visser One."

"Thank you Councilor. Marco, his best friend Jake was—no it can't be..." Visser One trailed off, staring at the Animorphs. "Seerow's mother it is! That boy right there is Jake! The boy must've dragged him in on this too." She muttered.

"Visser?" Councilor Four prodded.

"My apologies Councilor. Anyway, Marco's best friend Jake had a cousin, a girl named Rachel. I only saw her once when I—when my host dropped Marco off at Jake's birthday party. She—"

"Birthday party?" Councilor Twelve interjected.

"A silly human tradition to celebrate the number of years one's been alive." Visser One explained disdainfully. "Continuing with the story, when my host picked up her son from the party, he would not shut up about how fantastically funny, smart and 'hot' Rachel was and how he was going to send her flowers and candy and—"

"He said that?" Rachel said quietly, a strange, confused look on her face.

"Jeez." Marco muttered staring exasperatedly at the ceiling. "Yeerk infested or not, mothers always seem to find a way to embarrass you.

"Hot?" Visser Ten said in confusion, and turned along with almost everyone else to stare at Rachel, who felt a flush beginning to creep up her face.

"I suppose, she does tend to wear less clothing then other humans" Visser Ten acknowledged referring to Rachel's temporary morphing outfit and several controllers nodded along with him, not necessarily because they agreed but because they were scared of what might happen otherwise.

"You infinitely damned imbecile!" Visser One growled. "No, never you councilors! I meant Visser Ten! Hot as in nice looking. Beautiful. Pretty?" Visser One sighed as each term failed to wrap around the brain of Visser Ten.

"It is like... A Yeerk's progeny" she snapped. "Sort of, but—" Visser One trailed off and  
to her relief, faces ripened into looks of understanding and she decided to just leave it at that, turning back towards Rachel. "And that's how I know your name human."

"That's so sweet!" Cassie sniffled, patting Marco on the shoulder. "I never knew."

"You weren't supposed to!" Marco yelled, shaking Cassie's hand off.

«If we're finished discussing whether someone is hot or not.» Visser Ten snarled, taking another step towards the Animorphs.

Rachel's face hardened again, and she stepped towards Visser One.

«Prince Jake, I believe Tobias is capable of morphing again.» Ax commented, his tail held high and at the ready as he watched Tobias' feathers began turning blue.

"Hell yeah!" Jake cheered. "Battle morphs everyone!"

«Battle morphs everyone!» Visser Ten mimicked. «It'll be a pleasure to destroy you human.»

_**STOP!**_ A voice wheezed before bursting into a dry, hacking cough.

Everyone turned towards the source of the sound and an old wizened man, partially transparent, back bent almost double, missing several teeth and covered with massive wrinkles, shuffled from the back of the room into view.

"Ellimist?" Cassie gasped, her voice slightly rough due to being partially morphed to wolf. "Is that you?"

The old man coughed for a minute before finally managing to nod yes.  
Cassie pushed through the Yeerks and knelt at his side, helping him stand to his feet.

"Did...did Crayak win?" Cassie whispered quietly.

High up in the air, a spiraling, red light swirled, then commenced into the form of a medium sized circle.  
Another old man fell from this portal and hit the ground hard.

**_No._** Ellimist gestured at the old man. **_Crayak did not win. Drode is trying—_**

"DRODE?" Jake yelped in disbelief.

**Drode does not have the Galaxy at his command!** Crayak tried to yell, but this proved too much for his body's declined lungs and it took several minutes of coughing and repeating the sentence before they finally understood what he was saying.

**_Crayak and I have used almost all of the knowledge and power we posses to keep Drode in check._** Ellimist began. **_Crayak was a little reluctant to do so which explains why he was late to arrive here. We will rebuild our energy and use it to wrest control away from Drode._**

«And what does this have to do with me killing the Andalite Bandits?» Visser Ten snarled impatiently. «I see—»

**Shut up and listen!** Crayak wheezed angrily.

Visser Ten strode over towards Crayak and then whipped out hard with his tail, slashing the man across the chest and causing him to stumble backwards and fall to the ground.

«Never, interrupt me when I'm talking.» Visser Ten declared arrogantly.

"I hope you enjoyed that, it was the dumbest thing you've done by far." Visser One said disgustedly as Crayak pushed himself shakily back to this feet.

"Crayak!" Councilor Eight babbled. "Please accept our apologies on behalf of the entire Yeerk Empire! I assure you that Visser Fifty—"

«VISSER FIFTY! That's preposterous, ridiculous! Corruption of the council!» Visser Fifty bellowed angrily.

"It's perfectly justifiable, you've just attacked Crayak!" Councilor Eight bawled.  
"We hope to open a peaceful relationship between our people and your actions have put that option in serious jeopardy."

**Relationship?** Crayak laughed wheezily. **If by that you mean you do what I want, when I want it and exactly how I say it then—wait—you already do that.**

**_Ignore Crayak._** Ellimist coughed. **_We cannot force our will upon you, nor can we harm you._**

«Can't harm!?» Visser Fifty bellowed, snorting and gestured violently at the wreckage of the screen he had cannonballed into.

**There are exceptions.** Crayak croaked, somehow managing to croak coldly.

"Crayak," Councilor Eight continued. "I assure you that Visser Fifty will face the most stern of punishments perhaps even execution."

_**NO!**_ Crayak, Ellimist and Visser Fifty said strongly.

«My...my sincerest apologies.» Visser Fifty said as the Council glared at him.

**_Please…listen to me very carefully._** Ellimist said slowly. **_Somehow a portal to another universe has been opened._**

«A wormhole?» Ax questioned. «What is so spectacular about that?»

**Not a wormhole you arrogant andalite!** Crayak snarled, then coughed from the effort exerted snarling. **A portal to an alternate universe.**

_**What you might call**_ Ellimist added, seeing all of the blank faces. _**A parallel universe.**_

«Impossible!» Ax laughed. «First of all, Andalites have already disproved the theory of Parallel Universes and secondly, this is Drode we are talking about.»

"Shut up Andalite," Visser One snapped and Ax's eye stalks dipped. "Let them finish."

«Don't tell me what I can and cannot do, filthy Yeerk.» Ax snarled at Visser One.

"Ax, I'm your Prince and I'm ordering you to shut the hell up," Jake ordered

«Yes, Jake.» Ax said sullenly and crossed his arms.

"Don't call me-" Jake stopped and frowned.

Ellimist nodded appreciatively and continued talking.  
**_Crayak and I have tried to create an opening to a parallel Universe in the past. We toiled at research for many eons before reaching the conclusion that it was impossible and apparently we were wrong._**

"Excuse me?" Toby asked hesitantly. "What is a parallel Universe?"

**Damn seer.** Crayak coughed. **A parallel universe posses the same amount of space and matter, has the same laws, runs along the same axis of time as this one, yet no two universes are the same. In one such universe one difference may be that you—**Crayak thrust a gnarled finger at Cassie, who shuddered—**may no longer be here, torn to shreds by wolves at the age of four. Perhaps the entire state of California no longer exists shaken apart by an enormous Earthquake** he shot at Jake with great relish.

**Or maybe Crayak** continued to sneer. **A supernova explodes near the Yeerk Homeworld, incinerating each and every slug to a crisp.**

_**The difference may be unnoticeable**_. Ellimist interjected, feeling he should take over.  
_**Or the difference might be much more. Imagine an entire planet missing from a solar system. A planet uninhabitable because the atmosphere contains unbreathable chemicals.  
Maybe there's only a single difference. There are an infinite amount of parallel universes.**_

"Why would this Droid, excuse me I mean Drode person open up a parallel Universe?" A bright green eyed teenage controller asked, raising her hand in the air.

**Did we say Drode opened another portal? **Crayak snapped.

"But you said—" the girl begin, looking sorry that she had raised her hand in the first place.

**We said we were keeping Drode in check, that doesn't mean he opened the portal!** Crayak wheezed aggressively.

Ellimist patted Crayak on the shoulder. _**Please forgive him, Crayak hasn't gotten over the fact that because of the cruelties and lack of appreciation he offered Drode, he has been betrayed, as I countlessly warned him he would. Drode now serves under a different master. Droda.**_

"Droda?" Marco laughed.

_**Parallel Universes Marco.**_ Ellimist said. _**Droda, a female version of Drode if you will. It is she who has the power to open portals to other universes, she who has given Drode almost enough power to overcome Crayak and I. Fortunately, Drode didn't have the true knowledge, experience and skills of his powers and thus, we were able to use a few tricks we had up our sleeves. She is kind to all of her people who are loyal to her and has a furious rage for all those who oppose her. Recently, she has begun to expand to even more parallel universes...**_

"Well what does this have to do with us?" Councilor Eleven demanded in an upset tone.

**Think moron!** Crayak hissed. **When—when Droda comes for this universe, what do you think she's going to do to you, to all of you?**

Bek drew a blade swiftly across his neck, repeating the motion several times, alternating his arms before Toby told him that was enough and lowered his arm.  
"Droda kill us!" Bek concluded.

"Stupid free Hork-Bajir colony," Visser Fifty muttered, glaring at Bek.

Toby pushed Bek behind her and glared back at the Andalite controller.

_**It is imperative.**_ Ellimist wheezed impressively. _**that we close this portal to preserve the life we know of in our Universe. In order to do this, Crayak and I must rebuild our energy, banish Drode to the infinite plane of oblivion close the portal and finally, rewind time to the point before Drode first started dipping his wrinkled hands into the pools of the space time continuum. During the time that we rebuild our energy you must and I repeat you must remain alive and you must not kill each other.**_

Ellimist eyes scanned the room finally pausing on Rachel who scowled and looked away.

_**I will say it again. In order to rewind time properly each of you must be alive. By each and every one of you I mean all yeerks and their host bodies, not just Visser One and especially not just Visser Fifty. All it takes is one person to die, Drode will be alerted that the timeline we rewind is different from the one he remembers and he will re-alter its course so that the bleak timeline where our future is wiped out of existence continues. You must protect yourselves, protect your immediate families from danger because Drode is watching, Drode is watching.**_

«Fine, easily enough done» Visser Fifty snapped. «We'll call a temporary truce until this issue is solved and then...» he turned towards the Animorphs. «Kill you.»

"Have you been listening at all?" Visser One yelled. "Once this is solved, time will be rewound to the point before all of this happened. We won't remember anything."

"Actually, I—never mind," Cassie stuttered at the look Crayak and Ellimist gave her.

"So all we have to do is sit back, watch the tube, play some video games, go on a handful of dates until everything is cool?" Marco laughed. "Easy."

**Nothing is ever easy you fool.** Crayak said softly and Marco frowned at the remark. **Droda knows that we are trying to rewind time and she will be sending people through the portal to kill you.**

"That's terrible!" Cassie exclaimed. "What are we supposed to do?"

"Kill or be killed." Rachel said, a dangerous smile creeping across her face.

"Filthy human, did you not hear what they said!" Councilor Two exclaimed, gesturing at Crayak and Ellimist. "Let me see if I can simplify for you. If anyone dies, we all die."

**The girl is right.** Crayak snarled and Councilor Two's arrogant look evaporated.  
**Who cares if their timeline is ruined it's ours we must protect.**

_**It's not that easy.**_ Ellimist warned. _**Some of the people who are sent will look like you, act like you. You must be constantly alert, look for the one clue that tells you who is real and who is not.**_

"Um, excuse me?" the same teenage girl said, raising her hand in the air.

Crayak's shoulders twitched with annoyance and he turned towards her, clearly wishing that he had his big terror inducing red eye available. **What Clarabella?** he hissed.

"What if one of us dies by accident, gets hit by a car or something?" Clarabella said.

**If any of you so much as THINKS of dying in something so absurd as an accident!** Crayak bellowed angrily, incensed with rage, then fell backwards, coughing and smacking at his chest.

_**What Crayak means to say is please, please be careful.**_ Ellimist finished. _**This is the last you will see of us for a while. We will use up this last bit of power that we saved to insure that Drode is held in check and then we will no longer be able communicate with you.**_

«Exactly how long will it take you to rebuild your power, how long do we have to masquerade under this mask of friendship?» Visser Fifty growled.

**FOR AS LONG AS I TELL YOU TO.** Crayak hacked angrily and disappeared in a feeble flicker of candle flame.

_**Could be three days, could be three years.**_ Ellimist offered, narrowing it down. _**Good luck to you, the Universe is counting on you.**_

«Three years!» Visser Three howled in agony.

_**No killing**_. Ellimist warned, pointing a finger at Visser Fifty and Rachel before disappearing in a puff of blue smoke.

The Animorphs and Yeerks stared at each other, Yeerks slowly lowering their guns and clicking back on the safety.

"Fuck." Jake said, summoning up everyone's feelings.


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Animorphs.

* * *

Jake clenched and unclenched his fists, ignoring the warm smell of pancakes, bacon and eggs underneath his nose.  
His plate and fork lay untouched and he glared across the table at Tom, who's breakfast was just as untouched as Jake's and Tom returned the look with twice as much hatred.  
Jean slowly placed a small triangle of pancake in her mouth, while Peter shuffled his eggs around; the dangerous atmosphere imposing over the Berenson's dining table hadn't escaped their notice.

"Guys what's going on? You're not eating." Peter finally said, staring at their plates.

"Nothing's going on. Life couldn't be better," Tom said sardonically.

"Yeah, everything's going great," Jake agreed, viciously chomping a piece of bacon in half.

Peter's face told them he wasn't buying the story and he was correct in his thinking.  
Ever since 6:30 A.M. when Jake had snuck back through his bedroom window and crashed into the bed, not minutes later, Tom came barging into his room snarling that he'd just gotten a phone call, hissing and swearing about him being a "punk midget" and that he couldn't believe he was one of the so called Andalite Bandits all this time right under his nose.  
Jake started swearing back at the Yeerk for not letting him sleep for five damn minutes, how he was going to kick the Yeerk's slimy filthy ass—all the things he had ever wanted to say to the Yeerk jerking Tom around like a puppet master came streaming out of his mouth, both of them trading avalanches of threats and insults hour after hour until finally they were called down for a late breakfast.

Sitting across the table from each other, brothers on the outside, enemies within, glaring into each other's eyes, the stench of hostility pulsating from every pore, knowing what the other was hiding, unable to attack, to accuse, defend, forced to smother the natural reaction, their desired action.

Peter gave them another look, sighed and held out his plate to Jean. "Pop some more pancakes on there please. I said some pancakes, not one."

"Peter!" Jean laughed, dropping another three pancakes on his plate. "You are a pig."

"Boys," she said, replacing the platter on the table. "After breakfast, get dressed and I'll drop you off at the mall."

"What?" Tom frowned.

"You need to use the gift cards Uncle Chuck got you for Christmas before they expire," Jean explained.

"Aw, why the hell does he always have to get them a year in advance, they're always close to expiring when we get them!" Jake swore, pounding the table. "I don't feel like going."

"My brother likes to plan in advanced." Jean said defensively.

"You'd think with all that planning in advanced he'd have the time to come up with better thoughts." Tom muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Jean snapped, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

"I said I don't feel like going, why don't we just let the card expire." Tom sniped.

"Tom..." Peter warned. "Your Uncle Chuck spent $300 dollars to get you two a gift card, you are not going to waste that man's money."

"Fine!" Tom yelled, shoving his plate across the table and standing violently to his feet "Midget, get your gift card and get in the car!"

"Don't call me midget, Yeerk filth," Jake snarled, leaping up from his chair.

"What—what is Yeerk Filth?" Peter demanded in confusion. "You know what, both of you cut the name calling, get your gift cards and get in the car like your mother said. You two can also work out whatever is wrong between you while you're shopping."

Steaming, Jake threw his fork down and stalked upstairs, smashing into Tom's shoulder on the way and slamming his door.  
Tom's Yeerk retaliated by body checking him so hard when he came out, he nearly flew down the entire flight of steps, but Jake caught himself after stumbling the first few.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Jake yelled, stomping down the rest of the stairs.

"You'd be mad too if you were going to get executed because your freaking host's body brother was an Andalite Bandit." Tom snapped back.

"Animorph." Jake snarled, grabbing his coat and throwing open the front door. "So you're scared, is that what it is Yeerk? Going to get killed 'cause you didn't notice me?"

"Shut up, shut up!" Tom yelled and refused to utter a sound during the entire drive, despite Jean's efforts to engage her sons in conversation, so it was to her profound relief when she finally pulled up to the mall, Jake and Tom climbing out, slamming the doors behind them.

"Call me when you're ready to be picked up." Jean told them before rolling up the window and speeding away.

Tom and Jake pulled their coats tighter against the biting wind and pushed into the revolving glass doors of the downtown mall, Tom muttering the entire short walk about stupid, fluctuating temperatures.

"A Kohl's gift card." Jake swore staring at the plastic in his hand. "Always a Kohl's gift card."

"This is the dumbest thing I've ever—" Tom exploded, and then paused as several bystanders turned to look at him.

Tom yanked Jake to the side, lowering his voice, "Listen human. You and I are wanted, we are targets, marked to be killed by some Omnipotent bitch from a parallel Universe and yet, we are standing here with these STUPID gift cards, acting like everything is normal!"

"Quit the bullshit." Jake hissed coldly. "I've been masquerading as a regular teenager for nearly three years while kicking you and your fellow Yeerk troops up and down."

"You think you were normal?" Tom sneered as they started towards Kohl's. "Grades dropping, sneaking in and out of the house all the time, going over to Cassie's house. Of course, I know she's an Animorph now but before it looked like you—" he froze suddenly, the malicious smirk on his face dissolving, his eyes swinging to the far right.

"Get down!" Tom yelled, diving for the ground, snagging Jake's jacket and forcefully yanking him down alongside him.

"What the hell!" Jake demanded and then the front windows of a jewelry store they were lying beside exploded into thousands of shards, a blonde haired lady dressed from head to toe in black, diving through head first, customers ducking and looking around for the source of the noise, the lady who had crashed through scrambling to her feet, reaching for her coat pocket.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Jake yelled, leaping to his feet and taking off, Tom racing right behind him, reaching for his own pocket.

The lady finished pulling out a gun and now the mall goers were screaming, flying down to opposite ends of the mall, grabbing small children and seeking shelter in the nearest stores. A smile flitted across the woman's face, as if she were happy at all the chaos she was causing then she lifted her arm and fired.

The bullet flew over Jake's shoulder, blasting through the window of Radioshack and lodging in one of the walls. Tom twirled around, dracon beam in hand and fired back, a shot that blew a humongous chunk out of the wall, plaster and dust exploding in all directions.

Jake and Tom sprinted down the floor as the woman emerged, spitting dust to the floor, her lip curled aggressively as she started towards them.

"Where are you going?" Jake yelled, pushing his way through the panicked rush of people.

"Phone Kioski." Tom said shortly, and he threw himself over the counter, bringing half of the phones along with him and crashing to the floor on the other side, Jake right behind him, no less gracefully crashing to the floor.

"You do know, bullets can go straight through wood Yeerk?" Jake said drily.

"So does this," Tom said cranking his dracon beam up to ten and firing straight through the stand.

Jake threw up an arm to shield his eyes as wooden fragments exploded all around them and the red beam caught the lady dead in the chest.  
She froze instantly and came crashing face first into the ground, her gun clinking against the marble tile.

"Well that wasn't so hard," Tom panted, shoving the dracon beam back into his pocket.  
"I'm almost disappointed, that was rather pathetic."

"Guess again Yeerk," Jake said, gesturing towards the opposite entrance of the mall where half a dozen people, three men and three ladies, were heading towards them with great speed and purpose.

"Can you shoot?" Tom asked, ripping the gun from the downed lady, quickly patting her down until he found the spare clips and thrust it all to Jake.

"We're not going to try to take on six people Tom!" Jake yelled. "You're almost as bad as Rachel!"

"Of course not you ditzy human," Tom snarled, starting quickly down the floor  
"I asked if you could—"

"Yes." Jake snapped, also running alongside him. "I had to learn."

"Does mommy know little Jakey's playing with guns?" Tom sing-songed.

Gunfire erupted from their right before Jake could swear at Tom and they turned to see another lady crash through another store front window, rolling to her feet and training her gun at them.

"Get into Sears!" Tom yelled, firing his dracon beam, forcing the lady to duck and take cover. "We'll take the fire exit!"

"Damn, she is fast!" Jake yelled, sneaking a look over his shoulder to see the lady sprinting across the marble tiles, quickly closing the distance between towards them.

Tom fired again and the lady ducked under the red beam, squeezing the trigger of her own gun and returning fire just as Tom and Jake burst into Sears, throwing themselves to opposite sides and instead of them, the bullets ripped into a mannequin modeling Calvin Klein's latest line of work.

"Cover me!" Tom yelled, yanking a cell phone from his pocket, dialing at a frantic rate as they crashed through displays and clothes racks, people screaming and rushing out of the way. Jake twisted around and fired, the lady dropping behind a clothes rack for cover then shoving two halves of clothes aside, jamming her upper body out and firing again.

"Noooo!" Tom screamed, as a bullet tore straight through his cellphone, sending it flying out of his hand and clattering across the floor lifeless and useless.

"What part of cover don't you freaking understand!" Tom bellowed aggressively, angrily blazing dracon fire behind them, forcing the lady down to the floor.

"So it's my fault she's some psycho from parallel hell?" Jake bellowed back, lowering his shoulder and ramming throwing the fire exit.

A piercing alarm shrilled the minute the door flew open.  
There was a nasty thudding sound, and a grunt as the door faltered halfway, then Jake felt someone shoving back at the opposite side to slam the door.

"Forget the fire exit they've already got someone there!" Jake yelled and they sprinted off to the side, the lady pausing to shove open the fire exit door and a man entered joining in on the chase.

"Take the left here, the back entrance is probably our only hope of getting out of here." Jake ordered.

"Arrrggh!" Tom yelled, as a bullet hit him in the arm and he clutched his shoulder tightly screaming "Son of a Bitch!"

Jake turned around and fired back, forcing their pursuers to drop behind a display shelf for cover and then the brothers exploded out into a mall corridor, just as the half a dozen they'd left behind earlier rounded the other end of corner.

Tom gritted his teeth in pain, releasing his shoulder and clutching the dracon beam turning back towards Sear's. "Looks like we're going to have to shoot our way out of this one human."

"No." Jake said, staring ahead. "The escalators. Run like hell and we might make it."

Tom hesitated, than took off with Jake, the half dozen pursuers firing, sounds of screaming and shouts for help still emanating from people all around the mall.

The glass sides of the escalator exploded into shards as hails of bullets spat from their guns.

"Come on, Jake!" Tom yelled, already at the top and Jake, with an enormous lunge, hurled himself up the last remaining escalator steps.

Tom dropped to the ground, aiming down the escalator and blasted away with the dracon beam, keeping anyone from immediately following them. "Find us a way out of here!"

"There's more people coming around from the opposite end… they must've taken a different escalator or staircase." Jake yelled, panting and bloody but otherwise fine.  
"We can't take the see-through elevator it's too open and they're bound to have all the other escalators—shit!"

He whipped his gun around just as a security guard stormed into view, her gun out and trained on Jake!

"Freeze!" she yelled. "Drop your weapons and don't move!"

Tom closed his eyes momentarily and groaned softly.  
"You let a mall cop sneak up on you? Midget, really."

"Lady…" Jake began his eyes flicking quickly to the side.  
There were maybe thirty seconds before the other people had crossed the mall floor and shooting would resume…

"Come on kid drop the weapon!" she repeated sternly, unaware of the people behind her.

_Fuck._ "Sorry." Jake said and clenching his teeth, he fired and she staggered backwards into a Pretzel stand.  
Gasping, heavily she lifted her arm and tried to return fire but Jake's squeezed the trigger again—at the same time, a red beam flashed from the Payless store and the guard was knocked her down to the ground, her eyes staring up at Jake lifelessly.

"Yeerks!" Jake hissed, spinning towards the source of the beam and firing.

Some glass shattered and a girl shrieked, then Clarabella came into sight with her hands up.  
"Jake stop, it's me! Tom, Visser One told me you two were probably in danger and told me to come get you." Clarabella rattled brushing her black hair out of her eyes. "Into the Payless, hurry!"

Jake reached down and grasped Tom's good arm yanking him to his feet, then the three of them took off for the Payless, gun and dracon beams out, looking around anxiously for any signs.

"Take the rear midget," Tom ordered and he and Clarabella charged into Payless, Tom sweeping the left side of the room, Clarabella taking the right.

Jake frowned at their efficiency—it didn't look cheap like they were copying something they'd seen in a movie, they looked like they were well trained and had practiced doing this many times before and he just didn't like the idea of fighting trained Yeerks.

The store was devoid of people, or at least living people, Jake wincing as he saw a clerk slumped in the corner behind the register.  
A huge hole had been blasted in the wall leading clear to outside.

"Move it human!" Tom yelled, and he leapt through the hole, disappearing.

"What the hell!" Jake yelled, staring in horror.

"It's a hologram. Would you hurry up!" Clarabella said, anxiously glancing at the door.

"And I'm supposed to trust you how?" Jake snapped, refusing to move.

"Go through the hole!" Clarabella yelled grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. "Why would we let you jump through a hole and possibly fall to your death?  
Droda would be able to keep the portal open and none of us, humans, Yeerks, Andalites or otherwise would stand a chance. None of us."

Jake took a step forward, then started to run, closing his eyes as he jumped out of the hole and—"Found them!" a lady yelled—Jake's feet awkwardly hit the steel floor of a Bug Fighter's insides, and he fell to the ground.

"What took so long?" Tom demanded, Jake leaping to his feet.

"Shit, Clarabella's in trouble!" Jake yelled scrambling back up, the sound of gunfire cracking from beyond the hologram "We've got to go back!"

"Midget no!" Tom yelled, and his good hand jerked towards Jake's shoulder to grab him, but Jake had already leapt back through of the hole, smashing into something in midair and fell to the ground, back in the Payless.

"Do you really hate me so much?" A muffled voice said, and Jake found himself staring down into a pair of green eyes. "First you stand there taking too long, then you knock me out of the ship just before we're about to get away."

The gunfire, which had paused momentarily when their targets had seemingly disappeared into thin air resumed. Jake grabbed Clarabella and rolled hard to the right, bullets chewing up the floor where they had been seconds ago and they tumbled behind a shelf. Clarabella pushed herself to her knees, quickly drawing her dracon beam as the woman and man appeared from the other end, sending bullets flying dangerously overhead.

Red flashes lit up the room as Clarabella returned fired and the two dropped backwards behind a shelf for cover.

"Didn't mean to-" Clarabella began, climbing off him and at the same time that the man whirled around the shelf, fired quickly and dropped back into cover.  
The bullet landed an inch away from Jake's head leaving his left ear ringing and Jake scooted backwards on his back, firing his gun between his knees.

"Get up, get behind the next shelf, I'll cover you!" Clarabella whispered and Jake rolled, pushing himself to a crouch and dashing past Clarabella who fired twice before following him.

"So, any more brilliant ideas?" Clarabella asked softly, a hinting barb of sarcasm in her voice. The reinforcements poured into the room and the lady barked orders to her accomplices in the backgrounds.

"You tell me," Jake muttered, annoyed, unloading, reloading his gun with a new clip.

The walls of the Payless suddenly exploded as the dracon cannons of the Bug Fighter ripped through the store, cardboard and shoes flying across the room.  
Jake was briefly reminded of a movie but there would be no sprint across the store to jump aboard—in order to fire, the Bug Fighter had to face forward and the entrance door  
was now on the side.

Clarabella gasped suddenly, yanked her arm upwards and fired, the red beam blazing into the lady who had climbed on top of a shelf and had been about to shoot.  
Swearing, she toppled backwards and crashed down amid a pile of shoes.

Jake grabbed Clarabella yelling over the noise "We need to find another exit! Let's make a run for the front of the store while they're distracted!"

"Shoot anyone on the left, I'll take the right!" Clarabella shouted back and they sprinted out of the cover provided between shelves firing, the assailants who weren't running for cover from the bug fighter noticing, spinning around to engage them and the air filled with bullets and dracon beam fire before the two stumbled through what used to be the door.

"Give me the gun. Pin them inside!" Clarabella told him, half throwing him her dracon beam.

She yanked out her cell phone snagging the gun Jake flipped to her and scanning the area as she dialed. Sounds of chaos filled the mall but where they were was relatively quiet.

"Visser One — Tom's out but Jake and I are pinned inside… I need you to unblock the GAP entrance and tell the bug fighter to pull off. Okay."

"We need to get to the GAP." Clarabella said, snapping the cellphone shut. "We've got about eight minutes before the police will be all over this building. Twelve before the SWAT team."

The man suddenly stumbled into the entrance of the Payless—Jake fired twice and he fell to the ground, revealing the grinning woman who had involuntarily used him for a shield, raising her gun and firing at Jake but Clarabella had already anticipated and tackled Jake, both of them sliding across the floor, the bullets shooting through the gaps in the rail and smashing the windows of a toy store.

Clarabella stretched out her arm and pulled the trigger, the responding click signaling the gun was out of bullets. The lady, who had ducked behind the wall for cover, whirled back around for another shot and Jake nailed her directly in the face with the dracon beam.  
Another shot at max power blasted the front side of Payless apart, blockading the front entrance.

"Nice work." Clarabella said, ejecting the old clip.

"What are— do you mind?" Jake asked as Clarabella reached into his pocket, yanking out a new clip.

"No, do you?" Clarabella said ramming in the clip.

"I…Look." Jake said shaking his head in confusion.  
"How do we get to the GAP?"

"You tell me." Clarabella muttered and Jake scowled icily.  
"Okay …" Clarabella said, serious. "We need to get into that toy store on the other side."

"What!" Jake hissed. "The GAP's on the first floor!"

"It's also directly above the GAP." Clarabella said. "And it just so happens that you have a dracon beam…"

"Go through the floor? You're fucking insane." Jake said rudely. "It's a twenty-five foot something drop!"

"It's the fastest, safest way!" Clarabella argued. "We run straight down to the end, cross to the other side and then come back up."

"No." Jake said. "We'll go around to the opposite side and—shit."

On the other side of the second story, four men raced onto the floor from an escalator and started firing forcing Jake and Clarabella to hit the ground.

"You always do this!" Clarabella shrieked with frustration as she returned fire.  
"That's twice we could've have been out if you had listened!"

"We wouldn't have been able to get past those four people who just appeared!" Jake retorted, half crawling, half scooting along the floor, before fully scrambling back to his feet and firing back.

"Give me a clip!" Clarabella called, her gun making empty clicking noises and she ducked bullets screaming overhead.

"Why don't you just take it?" Jake snapped sarcastically but with his left hand he plunged for his pocket, still firing with his right hand and then felt two arms wrap around his chest from behind.

"What the hell are you doing!" Jake snarled and then he felt his feet lift off the ground as Clarabella hurled them both off the railing.

The four men paused in shock, then ran to the railing and started firing at the two of them falling through the air.

Jake felt the clip tugged from his hand, heard the old one ejected and the new one put in its place—the ground rushed up to meet him as he bent his knees, struggling to straighten himself, struggling to recall everything he had ever heard or seen about surviving falls and then his feet smashed into the floor with a dull thudding sound.  
An unbearable, vibrating ache rolled up his legs then his knees and shoulder hit the ground hard, rolling a couple of times until he came to a halt, gasping and panting.

He heard an awful crunching and sharp crack and Clarabella cried out in agony, her left leg broken, likely in multiple place.  
From all over the floor, dozens of gunmen turned at all of the noise and raced towards them drawing their weapons.

"Damn you and your inability to listen!" Clarabella cried through clenched teeth and she looked up at the second floor, firing off four shots from where she was lying on the ground, nowhere close to hitting their targets but enough to make the four men duck for cover.  
"Get into the GAP and go to the restroom!"

Jake climbed to his feet shakily a sickening, searing pain in his left arm, a burning sensation in his left ankle then with his good arm he yanked Clarabella, who was trying to hop and scramble along the floor on her hands and foot, upright, and he half carried, half dragged her into the store, glass flying all over the place as the front windows shattered into shards.

"Come on!" a man yelled, waiting at the entrance outside the restroom, waving his machine gun to urge them along. "Come on!"

Clarabella fired her last two shots behind them as the enemy poured into the room, guns blazing away.  
The man fired, sweeping back and forth with his machine gun and then raced into the restroom, Jake staggering behind, where another man was waiting—a mirror had been moved to the side, revealing a long narrow stairwell.

"We've got him!" The man screamed into a walkie-talkie. "Seal it down in 10!"

The man took a deep breath then threw himself down the stairwell, yelling the whole way as he slid and bounced down the stairs his partner a split second behind.

This time, he didn't hesitate and Jake threw himself and Clarabella after them cursing and screaming with pain as his shoulder banged into something.

A third of the way down an explosion blasted at the top of the passage and the ceiling of the passage collapsed, dirt and support beams crashing to the ground with a roar of thunder then at long agonizing last they hit the bottom of the stairwell, with a thump.

"We made it." Jake gasped, every bone in his body aching, the pain in his arm now excruciating fire burning up and down his back—he had been unfortunate to be on the bottom the entire trip down to the ground.

"You are crazy but we made it."  
"I'm not crazy." Clarabella choked, her green eyes blazing. "I'm fucking insane."

Jake lifted his head and kissed her, her lips soft and sweet and she closed her eyes, unresisting.

_Oh shit, I just kissed a Yeerk._ Jake thought, when they broke apart.  
And he kissed her again.


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Animorphs.

Well this chapter took forever to put up... sorry for the delay and thanks to everyone reviewing and reading, I hope you're getting some enjoyment out of it.

* * *

«You kissered a human!» Visser Fifty, formerly known as Three roared. «And not just any human either, you kissered an Andalite Bandit! Our enemy! You sick, disloyal, treacherous Dapsen of a Seerow, you disgust me!»

It was a few hours after noon and the Yeerks, Animorphs, Hork-Bajir and Chee were all back in the factory, attending the meeting Visser One had called, minus the fifty or so Yeerks Visser One had ordered to keep an eye on the Animorph's families.  
Jake, Tom and Clarabella were standing in the middle of the floor, fully healed, Jake by morphing away his injuries, and Tom and Clarabella with advanced Yeerk medical technology—"stolen from Andalites," Ax had sniffed.—while the Animorphs once again stood on the left side of the room and the Yeerks on the right.

"Wow, whatever happened to Friday Night video game begging boy," Marco said to Jake, a bemused look on his face.

"We're not enemies, we're allies!" Clarabella yelled ignoring, Marco. "We need to unite in order to have a chance!"

«We are not allies! We have a temporary truce and unite does not involve putting your host body's lips on an Andalite Bandit's and kissering them!» the Visser yelled back.

"It's KISSED you moron!" Clarabella shouted. "And it's ANIMORPHS not Andalite Bandits!"

«How dare you raise your tone and insult me!» Visser Fifty bellowed, smacking his tail violently against the ground. «You've gone over to the human side, you sympathize with them, you love them! You are an unstable and unsuitable Yeerk and I hereby command you held prisoner for treachery to the Empire!»

"Denied by Visser thirty-five," Clarabella said with a cold smile.

Ax laughed and Visser Fifty, fell quiet, a rarity, muttering to himself. «Dapsen girl outranks me, someone will suffer for this outrage.»

"Ooh, hot and in a position of power, way to go Jake buddy!" Marco laughed.

"Shut up." Visser One snapped at him.

"Yes mommy," Marco said then muttered to Toby and Tobias, "I always like to play it safe, you know just in case my real mom's thinking the same thing."

"Also denied by Visser One, so don't even think about bringing up law HH8-2234.7 like you were about to Visser Fifty." Visser One added.

«Oh, of course you deny it, you are only too happy to have someone on your side.» Visser Fifty snapped, angry at being outpowered.

"It's because it's irrelevant!" Visser One growled.  
"You've wasted enough time already Visser Fifty, the important matter at hand is how stupid Temrash and Jake were." And she turned to glare at the two of them.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid. You risked the fate of our Universe over a gift card so you wouldn't disobey mommy and daddy." Visser One said coldly. "You would have died if I hadn't checked up on you and then sent Clarabella to get you."

"They still need to listen to their parents," Toby argued. "Ellimist said it could take three years to rebuild their powers. Three years! They can't just disobey whatever their parents tell them, what if they get shipped off to military school or wherever else disobedient human children are sent? They won't be in a position to help us and it'll be harder for us to help protect them."

«Ha!» Visser Fifty laughed. «Beat by a lowly Hork-Bajir!»

«Shut up!» Tobias snapped, his hawk eyes narrowed and Bek took an angry step towards Visser Fifty but Toby grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Yes, shut up Visser Fifty," Visser One commanded. "This is why I called this meeting so we can discuss the best course of action and you have a good point, Toby right?"

Visser Fifty rolled his eyes as Toby nodded slowly and Visser One continued. "So flat out disobedience is not an option. A balance between safety and family must be."

"Hey, can the Chee cover for us?" Rachel asked. "Then we can concentrate all of our energy on destroying anyone who comes out of the portal.

"You know we'd be powerless to help your families if violence occurs." Mr. King said sadly. "I'm afraid we'd be useless."

"Figures," Marco scowled. It was no secret that he despised the Chee being non-violent.  
"There's another thing too mother dearest, what about your guys guarding our families? They can't be killed either or else it's all over. Maybe you should take care of your people and we'll take care of ours."

"Marco!" Cassie said, sounding slightly mad. "We're working together for the greater good of the Universe!"

"I didn't say severe ties with the Yeerk Empire jeez," Marco snorted.  
"Animorphs look after Animorphs, Yeerks after Yeerks and Hork-Bajir after Hork-Bajir."

«That's the smartest thing I've heard all day.» Visser Fifty said. «Let each group look after themselves, I agree.»

"Oh great, Visser Fifty approves. There goes the chance of that idea passing," Marco muttered.

Visser Fifty glared at him then turned towards the Yeerks. «Any objections?» he asked threateningly.

"The boy could have a point," Visser One mused. "We cannot afford to lose anyone, high-ranking, low ranking, Animorph or otherwise. I think it might be a good idea to let the Animorphs take care of themselves. Meanwhile Yeerks, the pool is on absolute lock down. No one leaves no one enters. All Yeerks that must remain above ground will receive a portable kadrona ray generator or report to the Pool Ship for feeding."

"Tobias, Aximili, you are welcome to stay with us in the valley." Toby offered.

«Thanks Toby, I think I'd feel a lot safer there.» Tobias said. «Ax?»

«Toby, thank you for your gracious offer.» Ax said. «I am happy to stay in the valley with my brother and sister Hork-Bajir.»

"Looks like everything is settled then?" Jake said slowly and Visser One nodded.  
"Let's go guys."

"Don't you want to kiss your new girlfriend good bye?" Marco teased making both Jake and Clarabella flush.

"Knock it off Marco," Jake muttered quietly.

"You know, I think she's having a great effect on you, I haven't heard a single bad word out of you." Marco continued, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Fuck you." Jake snapped and Marco laughed.

"Chapman, get a transport ship ready to drop the Animorphs home," Visser One ordered and Visser Fifty's face turned sour, once again hearing her order around people who used to be under his command.

"No, we'll walk," Jake told her, declining the offer.

« Going to have a little meeting, a separate talk with out your Yeerk allies around?» Visser Fifty sneered.

"You mean just like you're going to do once we're gone?" Marco sighed. "Yeah, you know guys, every time Visser Fifty speaks, I get more and more embarrassed how we can't always stop his plans."

A few Yeerks laughed and Visser Fifty started angrily towards Marco, realized he wasn't allowed to kill anyone and continued moving forward anyway.

"HEY!" Visser One barked, yanking out a Dracon Beam.

Ax stepped in front of Marco, followed by Jara-Hamee and Bek who Toby promptly snatched up and handed to their mom, Ket-Halpak.

"Lighten up you sensitive dapsen, it was a joke," Visser One snapped. "Come back over here, let everyone leave, and then we'll hold our own separate little meeting."

«Forget the separate little meeting!» Visser Fifty bellowed, finally turning away to storm off in a different direction. «I don't need any of this!»

"Let the big blue baby go," Clarabella said, as a controller Hork-Bajir bravely made to go after him. "Animorphs, until next time." She smiled slightly at Jake who also slightly smiled back, Rachel rolling her eyes.

"We'll take you up on that ride offer." Toby told Visser One, as the Animorphs trooped off.

The Animorphs walked in silence until they were outside the factory, then Rachel and Marco turned at Jake and yelled. "How could you fall in love with a Yeerk!"

«No offense Prince Jake and I didn't want to say this at the meeting but your actions are deplorable!» Ax sniffed.

"Clarabella's different!" Jake snapped at them. "She doesn't just want to help all of us, she cares about helping all of us, not just Yeerks."

«She's Visser Thirty-five, Jake.» Tobias pointed out, flapping overhead. «I don't think she got that high up by being nice.»

"Jake buddy, you got your first glimpse of her, ten hours ago when she asked Crayak a question." Marco said. "You first talked to her three hours ago and now you're head over heels in love with her? No Jake, this is the result of kissing her in the heat-of-the moment situation, when you were both fighting for your life and now you just think that you love her."

"You don't know that," Jake snapped, turning towards Cassie for her view, her support.

"I think Marco's absolutely right." Cassie said in a small dignified voice.

"Whoa!" Marco laughed, clapping his hands together loudly. "Oh this is just too much. Everyone knows Cassie has an entirely different view on the matter but because she's jealous—"

"I am not jealous!" Cassie yelled, putting her hands on her hips.

"You are so jealous that Jake was 'kissering' another girl," Marco crooned.

"Am not!" Cassie said again. "I-I actually think it's kind of um, sweet that Jake a human and, and— "

"Clarabella" Marco supplied, an amused look on his face.

"Clarabella a Yeerk can, can fall in love and—" Cassie's voice trailed away, tears welling up in her eyes and Macro smirked.

«Ax, perhaps we should take Cassie home.» Tobias said, glaring at Marco.

"Yes, I agree that perhaps that would be a good idea." Ax agreed, beginning to turn from a human back to an Andalite. "I will be with you in a moment."

"Stick together," Jake mumbled as the three of them headed off, then he glared at Marco.

"So..." Macro said, ignoring the glare and beginning to change into his bird, Jake and Rachel also changing into their own bird morphs. "Clarabella and Jake kissering in a tree. Can I ask why? She's cute but not exactly a nine or ten if you know what I mean."

«Excuse me weenie?» Rachel snarled. «Are you assigning a score to girls?»

«You know you do the same thing, babe.» Marco shot back. «You're a ten on my scale by the way in case you were wondering.»

«Obviously.» Jake said. «You were drooling all over Rachel when you were younger.»

«No trying to steer the conversation away from you.» Marco said sternly. «Besides, that's mother supplied fuel, it's against the rules to use it in an argument.»

«What rules, you're making up stuff.» Jake said. «Besides we need to be discussing what we need to be doing.»

«But you having a Yeerk girlfriend is juicy discussion!» Marco teased, then his smile disappeared as he became serious. «Listen Jake. Visser Fifty is actually right, we are not allies with the Yeerks we have a temporary truce because we have a mutual goal that requires immediate attention—saving the universe. As soon as this is all over, whether we win or lose, the Yeerks are going to go right back to being our enemies again.  
I don't care if we have a truce with them or not, I still don't trust them and I never will.  
You are fraternizing and who knows what other kind of nasty stuff with the enemy and that is not cool.»

«Clarabella is not the enemy!» Jake yelled again, diving towards the ground to let out some of his frustration, then swooping back up in the air.

«All you're doing is yelling.» Rachel said dismissively. «You're not making any arguments or giving us any reasons.»

Jake paused to look at her then continued flying back towards the town.  
«I trust her.» Jake said finally. «I can't explain it to you but I trust her.»

«Okay, Cassie.» Marco said sarcastically, and the rest of the flight was mostly silent, Rachel speaking only once to complain how cold it was when they paused midway to demorph and remorph.

The sky was beginning to darken when they finally swooped over Rachel's house, scrutinizing the bushes and lawns, flying past windows, looking for the slightest sign of anybody lying in wait for an ambush.

«Looks clear on the outside.» Marco said after a few minutes. «Later baberator.»

Rachel's bald eagle swiped at him, but Marco's spry osprey easily dodged.

"We'll go inside too, make sure everything is okay." Jake said, swooping through Rachel's window, which she always kept open, regardless of what the temperature was.

«It's a good thing Jake's a responsible cousin of yours, otherwise you'd be in huge trouble for having two boys in your room.» Marco joked, starting to demorph.

Rachel finished first, and threw open the closet, walking inside.

"That's not how you check Rachel!" Jake said, sounding slightly garbled, not quite finished morphing the parts necessary for speaking.  
"You're supposed to peer inside cautiously, not just boldly march inside."

"It's clear isn't it," Rachel shrugged, unlocking her door, and heading towards Sara's room, where every Barbie in her sister's possession were apparently starring in Barbie the Reality series.

"Hi Jake, hi Rachel!" Sara squeaked. "Want to play Barbies with me? Ken's in trouble because Christina caught him going out on a date with Kelly when she said she was really going to the park with a friend and the hidden camera recorded Kelly and Christina getting into a fight in the girls bathroom over Ken and—"

"SARA!" Rachel yelled, opening the closet door and marching inside—Jake sighed— "Nobody wants to play barbies."

"Aw," Sara said gloomily. "I'll just play by—Marco!" Sara squealed excitedly, catching site of him behind Jake and Rachel.

"Oh, I knew you'd come upstairs to play with me!" Sara clapped. "Can we put on sunglasses and pretend we're about to go into the real world to save someone? Look, Uncle Pete Pete got me my own pair of sunglasses, they're just like yours!"

"Sara, I'm really, really sorry,' Marco said, and he truly sounded like he was. "but I have to get home for dinner. Jake and I just wanted to drop Rachel off."

"Oh." Sara said sadly, her lip trembling a bit. "Don't, don't you hate when mommy says you have to come home for dinner?"

"Yeah, mommies get you every time." Marco said, patting her on the shoulder. "Don't cry okay, we'll play some other time, I promise."

"Cross your heart and hope to die?" Sara asked him, rubbing at her eyes.

Marco crossed his fingers on his heart and finished solemnly "Stick a watermelon in my eye."

"A watermelon?" Sara said in confusion and then she giggled. "That's silly, watermelons are bigger than your head!"

"That's what my friend thought until he broke a promise to me and boom, had to stick a watermelon in his eye. He's doing Air Gusher commercials now." Marco joked.

Sara giggled again but her face grew sad once more as Marco waved bye and headed downstairs with Jake and Rachel.

"I can't believe Sara, actually likes you," Rachel muttered as she followed to open the door. "Enjoy it while it last Marco, no other girl is ever going to like you."

"Haha, you should look in to being a standup comedian," Marco said dryly, closing the door behind them.

Rachel double checked that it was locked then went into her room to change into something other than her morphing outfit.

"Rachel," a small voice from the doorway said, as she was pulling on some jeans. "Can you pretty, pretty please play Barbies with me just for teensy tiny little bit."

Rachel stared at Sara's sad face and sighed. "Fine, I'll play but let me get a yogurt first, I'm hungry."

"Yay! I'll get it ready Rachel!" Sara squeaked and ran back into her room.

Rachel smiled slightly and headed into the kitchen trying to decide whether she was going to have a Fluffy Key Lime Pie or Strawberry Kiwi.

She flicked on the switch and her heart leaped into her throat as the light illuminated two figures, a girl leaning back against a counter and a boy pressed up against her, one hand supporting a leg in the air, the other running through her long dark brown hair, their lips locked in a passionate embrace.

"MARCO!" Rachel yelled and both Jordan and Marco jumped, opening their eyes, scrambling away from each other.

"Rachel!" Jordan snapped, smoothing out her hair, her face flushed. "I thought I just told you to get out of here."

Rachel stormed towards them, all thoughts of fluffy yogurt forgotten, spluttering as she tried to find the right words to yell.

"Don't be jealous Rachel," Jordan said coldly. "Marco likes me, not you."

Those words sparked Rachel into action and she grabbed Jordan by the shoulders and started shaking her, screaming "I hate Marco I'm going to kill him! What the hell are you doing letting some boy all over you like that!"

"I'm nearly 15 Rachel!" Jordan yelled, snatching her arms away from Rachel's grip, her hair and clothes still a disheveled array.

"I don't care if you're eighteen, I better not ever see you doing it again!" Rachel shouted.

"It's my body and I'll kiss whoever I like!" Jordan snapped, practically nose to nose with Rachel, looking just as furious as her sister.

"You call what you were doing kissing?" Rachel snarled. "And YOU!" she blazed, aiming the nastiest look she could muster at Marco."I will MURDER you, what are you doing messing with my sister like that? I told you to leave not play filthy games with Jordan!"

"There's nothing filthy about it Rachel!" Jordan screamed. "You're just jealous because no one in their right mind will ever love you!"

"Tobias!" Rachel snapped angrily. "He's my boyfriend, so there!"

"That dork from yesterday?" Jordan snorted. "Way to go Rachel big catch. I don't care what you think I—"

_Maybe there's only a single difference._ The words suddenly flowed, through Rachel's mind and her eyes narrowed, the sound of Jordan's furious tirade distant. _This Marco is just like the real Marco except, except he likes Jordan. He should've already killed her but since he likes her, he didn't._

"Marco," Rachel said, cutting off Jordan and trying to smile sweetly but only managing a sort of grimace. "Do you mind if I talk to Jordan privately for a minute?"

"The thought of leaving you for a moment is almost more than I can bear," Marco crooned. "I'll count every second until we are reunited again."

_Oh god._ Rachel thought as he stepped into the living room to give them some privacy. _Corny through and through, just like Marco._

Rachel you are such a bitch!" Jordan snapped, crossing her arms.

The words stung, slapping Rachel across the face like wet sandpaper.  
Jordan herself looked surprised, even scared that the words had come out of her mouth, then her expression changed to one that was defiant and proud.

"Jordan I—listen to me Marco is not the guy you think he is!" Rachel said quietly.

"You always have something awful to say about Marco!" Jordan said angrily. "He came over this afternoon with flowers and candy and he apologized about last night which is more than I can say for some people!"

"Why would I apologize to you? Sorry for making you watch Sara and keep you from crying about the parties you weren't invited to and wondering why you aren't popular?" Rachel sneered, instantly regretting the words as soon as they were out of her mouth.

"See what I mean! My sister the bitch." Jordan growled and it was all Rachel could do not to slap her. "Go downstairs and finish watching your movie! I don't want to talk to you anymore, go away!"

"Movie?" Rachel said, momentarily confused.

"Just go away! You're just jealous because Marco loves me and not you. For once, something didn't go the way Queen Rachel wanted it to go!" Jordan yelled.

"Shut up!" Rachel yelled back. "I told you you're not seeing him and that's final!"

"Rachel!" Sara yelled. "Rachel where are you?"

"Who do you think you are?" Jordan yelled. "You don't tell me what to do!"

"Rachel!" Sara whined and the stairs started squeaking as she came downstairs.

"STOP WHINING YOU BRAT, WOULD YOU GIVE ME FIVE MINUTES!" Rachel hollered in frustration, feeling as if everything was spiraling out of control.  
She grabbed Jordan by the shirt, and yanked her close so they were nose to nose again. "No Marco and that's FINAL!"

"Let go of me!" Jordan yelled, kicking Rachel in the shin and Rachel swore, releasing Jordan and clutching her leg.

_Protect your immediate families from danger._ Rachel thought. _Just because Marco liked Jordan and wouldn't kill her, didn't mean he'd treat everyone else the same._  
"Oh god," Rachel whispered, ignoring the pain in her leg and scrambling to her feet just as Sara let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Rachel exploded into the Living Room, Sara was curled in the corner screaming.  
Marco standing over her kicking, punching, a knife flashing in the air.

"I'll kill you!" Rachel thundered, and charged towards him.

"Marco!" Jordan gasped having followed Rachel into the living room.  
She grabbed her chest, a look of shock on her face and stumbled back against the wall.

"Jordan — this isn't what it looks like!" Marco said desperately.

Rachel lashed out with her foot and kicked him in the chest, knocking him away from Sara. Marco growled, and lunged at her with the knife, but Rachel dodged aside, grabbed his wrist and twisted it until he howled with pain and let the knife fall to the floor.

"Marco no! Stop it!" Jordan screamed her eyes wide, shooting back and forth between the fight and Sara.

_Go downstairs and finish watching your movie!_ The words flashed through Rachel's mind, as Marco kicked her in the same shin, and she grabbed her leg again.  
_But, she had just come in she hadn't been watching anything…_

"Jordan, watch out behind you!" Rachel yelled.

Jordan turned around, just in time to see a frying pan smash into her face and she immediately blacked out, crumbling to the ground.

Time seemed to stand still as Rachel looked out across the Living Room, staring at a perfect copy of herself holding the heavy pan that had knocked Jordan unconscious.

"Hello Rachel," Parallel Rachel said, twirling the pot with a twisted smile.

Rachel nailed Marco in the face with her elbow, who howled, dropping backwards clutching his face, then she sprinted across the floor to stop Parallel Rachel from killing Jordan, her sick smile twisted across her face as she brought the pan down once, twice more before Rachel smashed into her, knocking her across the carpet.

"It's going to be weird killing you," she snarled, swinging the pan ferociously. "It's almost like killing myself."

"RACHEL!" Sara screamed as Marco snatched up the knife and started attacking her again.

"I'm coming Sara!" Rachel yelled, ducking the pan again and then knocking the pan wielding freak backwards with a left hook.

"Rachel, Rachel— you can't beat me. I'm just like you, except I'm faster—"  
She knocked Rachel in the head with the pan and stars exploded.

"Stronger—"  
The pan smashed down again, and Rachel stumbled backwards, her vision blurring, unaware of her surroundings, falling deep into a depth of blackness.

"Rachel!" Sara called again, weaker, quieter.

"And all around better than you."  
The pan smashed down again and Rachel grabbed her attacker's wrist, stopping the pan from crashing into her face a third time.

"You are not better than me!" Rachel snarled through bloody gritted teeth and straining, struggling, she shoved hard, sending her twin reeling onto the floor of the living room.

Parallel Rachel, pushed herself onto her feet and the other Rachel clobbered her across the face with another left hook then a right.

"You're going to die," Parallel Rachel spat blood, swinging the pan, Rachel barely ducking beneath it and it whooshed over head, then Rachel leaped through the air and smashed into Marco, knocking him against the wall praying the other Rachel would leave Jordan alone and come for her, sighing in relief when she did.

"You're sister is going to die and so are you!" Marco snarled slashing at her with the knife.

Rachel hit him hard in the side and he groaned, another hit sent him staggering into the wall and then the pan came down out of nowhere, smashing into Rachel's head so hard, she collapsed to the ground but somehow, someway, Rachel stayed conscious, fighting against all odds to remains standing, to survive as she always did.

"My god, you're like Xena Warrior Princess or something don't you ever go down?" Marco snarled, slashing at her again another deep cut appearing on her arm.  
Rachel rolled to the left and the pan came smashing down on the floor ringing loudly.

Sara's small sobs faded away completely and an uncontrollable dark rage welled up inside of Rachel. She knocked Marco's next swing aside, and her next punch lifted him off the ground, sending him crashing into the wall and then the floor, motionless.

The pan swung again, Rachel threw up her arm to block and heard her arm crack.  
Another swing to the face, and Rachel fell backwards, hitting the ground.  
Her good arm, came forward to block one last swing, the cracking sound louder, more painful than the other and it dropped to her side completely useless.  
"Goodbye, weakling," Rachel smiled and the pan came smashing down again and again, on her legs, her shoulders, Rachel lying on the ground, gritting her teeth, refusing to lose conscious, to pass away, each blow painful beyond imagination and then a crash came from upstairs and a bubble of hope began to fill Rachel's chest.

"That's the other difference between you and me," Parallel Rachel said, dropping the pan and leaning in close to whisper. "I know when it's time to run."

She scooped Marco up off the ground and raced through the front door. Seconds later, Jake and Marco practically bounded down the entire flight of stairs.

"No, no, no!" Marco's horrified voice slid through Rachel's conscious. "Jake, Jake call your dad, we've got to get Sara to the hospital! I'm going after them!"

"Fuck!" Jake exploded, pounding the wall in grief and anger. "Damn parallel Universe, WHY!"

Footsteps, panicked voices and then Rachel sensed someone kneeling besides her a hand on her shoulder.

"Rachel it's me Jake. Try to focus okay, can you demorph?"

"Jake," Rachel whispered. She had never felt so small and insignificant in her life. "Jake, I couldn't stop her."

"It's okay Rachel, you-you did great. You probably saved Jordan's life."

"What about Sara!" Rachel groaned. "Is she still alive?"

Jake was silently and Rachel managed to roar "IS SHE STILL ALIVE!"

"It- It doesn't look very good but at least you made it possible for her to have a chance."" Jake said finally.

"I didn't realize the clues on time," Rachel whispered angrily. "I should have realized something was wrong."

"Neither did Marco or me." Jake said grimly. Calm down Rachel, it's going to be okay."

"Tell him—" Rachel gasped. "Tell him—"

Jake felt her body go limp and his heart skipped a beat before he realized that she had finally lost conscious.


End file.
